A StarCrossed Love
by PrincessSerenity1976
Summary: We all know the story of the Moon Kingdom's fall. But what if Serenity and Endymion, weren't the only star-crossed couple? This is the story of another couple that paid the ultimate price. Serena/Darien plus another couple. Slightly AU, but includes quite a bit of cannon. ENJOY!
1. Separations

**A/N** Hey everybody! I know you are probably scratching your heads because I'm posting a chapter of another story instead of updating the ones I already have going. But, as my Facebook followers know, I've had some stuff going on. I had a nice case of what the doctor is declaring as food poisoning earlier in the summer. After that, I took a couple of trips with the hubby and son. We went back to Memphis to spend some time with family and then went on vacation in east Tennessee, which was absolutely gorgeous. The mountains were phenomenal! When we got back I went in for an outpatient procedure on my arm to fix some residual damage from my wreck last fall, so I've been semi out of commission while it heals. I didn't have any updates for my other stories ready to post yet, so I decided to launch this one ahead of schedule since it was just sitting on my flash drive and already edited. Darien is one of the main characters, so I thought it was fitting since it is his birthday in just a few hours. I hope you like it.

ENJOY!

_**Disclaimer-**_The brilliant Naoko Takeuchi is responsible for creating Sailor Moon. I just enjoy playing with her characters while sometimes adding in a few of my own.

_**Summary-**_We all know the story of the Moon Kingdom's fall. But what if Serenity and Endymion, weren't the only star-crossed couple? This is the story of another couple that paid the ultimate price.

* * *

A Star-Crossed Love

Chapter 1

Separations

* * *

_**21 years ago**_

It was the middle of the night, and the halls of Tokyo General Hospital were quiet except for the occasional squeak of a rubber soled shoe on the linoleum floor as the nurses made their rounds to check on sleeping patients or the soft murmurs of their voices as they talked at the nurses' station while updating charts.

One of the nurses, a young lady in her early twenties who had only been out of nursing school for a year, gently cracked open the door of the room at the end of the hall so that she could peek in at the room's three occupants.

The woman tucked into the high hospital bed was asleep. But even in the soft glow of the dim lights the nurse could plainly see the bruise-like shadows under the woman's eyes and the paleness of her skin. The patient was clearly exhausted, but that was no surprise. Ilene Tsukino had endured upwards of about thirty-six hours of labor before she had finally given birth to her almost eight and a half pound son. That was enough to almost break even the strongest of people.

A muffled snore came from the other side of the room, and the nurse clamped a hand over her mouth to stifle the giggle that bubbled to her lips at the sight of the fully-grown man who was scrunched up onto the short couch under the window. Ilene had argued with her husband, Ken, earlier, insisting that he would be more comfortable at home in their bed. But he had argued back impassionedly that he wanted to remain with his small family. Ken Tsukino was clearly a man who deeply loved his wife, and he was also completely gaga over his new son. So he had won the battle and bunked in on the tiny couch.

No sound came from the rolling basinet that was only a couple of feet away from the bed, which indicated that the newest addition to the family must be sleeping as well. But just to reassure herself, the nurse eased the door open a bit more and tiptoed across the room.

She looked down at the tightly wrapped bundle in the bassinet and reached down to readjust the little hat that covered the golden fuzz on the baby's head. His round, slightly chubby face screwed up for a moment, so she quickly withdrew her hand, hoping that he didn't wake up. He had just been fed and changed an hour ago after he had been taken to the nursery to be weighed, and she was sure that his parents would love to squeeze in at least a couple of hours of sleep before he woke up again.

Pleased that all seemed to be well here, she slipped quietly back out of the room and pulled the door closed behind her. She made a notation on the chart that she carried as she made her way down the hall to the nurses' station.

"Is everything okay, Jill," an older, slightly overweight nurse asked her as she set the chart in the proper bin.

She nodded. "Everything looks good, Donna. Everyone is resting comfortably at the moment. But I wonder how long it will last."

Donna nodded sagely. "I give it about an hour or so. That will be when the babies that came back from the nursery first will start waking up with empty tummies. Then we'll be running our feet off trying to help all the new mommies get them settled again."

"I don't mind. I kind of look forward to it in a way. This place seems kind of spooky when it's quiet like this," Jill responded with a shiver.

Donna chuckled. "Girl, have you been sitting up on your nights off watching those horror movies again?"

Jill shrugged. "What else is there to do while I'm studying? I don't exactly have a booming social life."

Donna rolled her eyes. "Because you never go anywhere. You should get out more and see what happens. You're young and pretty. The men would be lining up at your door if you did something besides work and stay holed up in your apartment all the time."

"I get out!" Jill protested.

"School doesn't count. I still don't see why you want to become a doctor anyway when you have a brilliant nursing career ahead of you. And neither does the grocery store" Donna snorted. "Actually, I take that back. It may sound cliché, but I met my Joe on the frozen food aisle. We were both shopping for ice cream and reached for the same kind at the same time. We got to talking, and then the next thing I knew he was asking me out. Now, here we are, twenty years later, happily married with two almost grown children."

Jill huffed a tiny laugh. "It sounds like something from a fairytale. It's too bad that it doesn't happen more often. It's a shame that sometimes people get together for all of the wrong reasons."

Donna patted her hand gently. "Honey, I know that your childhood was less than ideal, what with your parents getting married because your momma got pregnant with you. But just because they fought like cats and dogs and eventually got divorced doesn't mean that all relationships turn out like that. If you meet a guy that you're interested in, you should give him a shot. You just might be surprised."

A sly smile turned up Jill's lips. "Well, there is this one guy that works as a trainer at my gym, and I've caught him looking at me a few times. I probably wouldn't say no to him if he asked me out. Even if it turned out to be a short fling, it would be worth it. He is seriously ripped. I bet he could show me a good time."

Both women collapsed into giggles at that proclamation. But their laughter was cut short as a muffled scream echoed down the hallway. Before either of them could blink, the call button for the room at the end of the hall began blinking.

Jill didn't stop to think as she ran around the desk and bolted down the hall. The sound of that scream told her that something was seriously wrong. She was almost to the door when it banged open and a wild-eyed Ken Tsukino flew into the hall.

She gaped for a moment. "Mr. Tsukino! What…"

He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. "Where are they? Where did they go?"

"Who…" she began to ask, but she found herself speaking to the air as he abruptly let her go and sprinted for the door that led to the stairs.

Jill sucked in a few shaky breaths before entering the room that she had just been in not ten minutes before. It was now brightly lit, and Ilene Tsukino stood beside the bassinet clutching a baby blanket to her chest…the empty bassinet.

"Where's the baby?" Jill demanded, looking around, thinking that perhaps he had been laid on the bed or the sofa. But the infant was nowhere to be seen.

Ilene slipped to her knees on the floor as she shuddered with deep, gut wrenching sobs. Finally, she managed to choke, "My baby is gone! Somebody took him!"

* * *

Police detective Rick Furuhata grimaced as he took a sip of his now cold coffee. Then he picked up the pad he had been taking notes on and looked at the woman across from him that he had been questioning.

"Okay, Miss Baker, let me make sure that I have the story straight," he rumbled in a slightly gruff voice. He had been called out of bed to cover this case and the caffeine hadn't quite hit him yet. "You were in the victim's room approximately ten minutes before the baby was discovered missing by the parents?"

Jill nodded tiredly. "Yes sir. I was making my hourly rounds."

He scribbled a few words before he continued. "And you actually entered the room?"

She blew her brown bangs off her forehead. "Yes. Mr. and Mrs. Tsukino were both sleeping, so I went in to make a visual check on the baby to make sure that he was okay."

"And was he?" he asked.

"Yes," she answered promptly. "He was sleeping."

"Hmm," he mused as he made another note. "And is it usual protocol for nurses to go into patients' rooms like that? I would think that unless there was medication that needed to be administered or something of that nature that you wouldn't want to take the chance of disturbing your patients' rest."

Jill's dark chocolate colored eyes snapped angrily. "Do you have any children, detective?"

He looked taken aback by the question. "No."

She folded her arms across her chest. "Does anyone else in your family? Have you spent any time around newborns?"

He shrugged. "My brother and his wife don't have any kids yet. I have some friends that have a little boy that's just a baby, but I kind of keep my distance from him. Babies are sort of fragile looking."

She gave a sharp nod. "That is exactly my point. The first few months of a baby's life can be the most dangerous. There can always be some abnormality or birth defect that wasn't detected before that could cause a problem. I'm a firm believer that those factors play a huge part in most SIDS cases."

Rick scratched his head. "Um…SIDS?"

She rolled her eyes. "Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. You know, crib deaths. There are thousands of cases reported every year where seemingly healthy infants are unexpectedly found dead in their beds. Doctors have been debating for years about what they believe causes it, but no one knows for sure. So in the cases of when a parent isn't awake to give me verbal confirmation that the baby is okay, I check for myself to give myself peace of mind. It also falls within the hospital's guidelines if you would like to check."

He held up his hands in surrender. "Okay, so you are very thorough when it comes to your job. I can respect that. So you checked on the Tsukinos at approximately ten thirty and found all three of them in the room and sleeping peacefully. Did you happen to see anyone maybe hanging around in the hall when you left?"

She shook her head. "No. Visiting hours were over by then, so there was no one around. I left the room and went back to the nurses' station. I was talking with Donna when we heard Mrs. Tsukino scream about ten minutes later. I ran back to the room and bumped into Mr. Tsukino as he came out. He looked like he was out of his mind and asked me _where did they go _before he ran off down the staircase."

He nodded. "And the door to the stairs is right across from Mrs. Tsukino's room, correct?"

"Yes. But nobody could have come in that way," Jill answered immediately. "The door can only be opened from the hall. If someone pressed the release lever from inside the stairwell it would trigger the fire alarm unless they had a keycard to bypass the system."

"Which all hospital employees have, Miss Baker," he pointed out.

She gasped. "You think that this was an inside job?"

He shoved a hand through his dark brown hair. "We are exploring all options."

The door to the break room that they had been using opened and a uniformed officer stepped in to speak softly to the detective. "We've gone over every square inch of this hospital and found nada. That baby is not here."

"What about the security tapes?" Rick mumbled low.

The officer shook his head. "Nothing suspicious on them. This is just like the cases we've had at the other two hospitals."

They were barely speaking in whispers, but Jill had very sharp hearing. She perked up immediately. "There have been other cases of babies being kidnapped from hospitals?"

Rick sighed deeply and told the officer, "I still want the tapes bagged as evidence. Maybe the tech guys will be able to find something useful on them."

Then he turned back to Jill. "We've been trying to keep it out of the media to keep from causing a panic, but yes, there have been two other cases of infant abduction from hospitals here in Tokyo in the past month, and a few from other cities in Japan as well. I've been covering the cases here, and I would appreciate it if you kept this information to yourself."

Jill shook her head. "I promise I won't say anything. I wouldn't want to mess things up for you. Just tell me that you will do all that you can to find these missing children."

His green eyes glittered fiercely. "I'm going to do all that I can to run these bastards down. You see, Miss Baker, I'm just as thorough with my job as you are with yours."

* * *

_**3 years later**_

"Rick, what are you doing here?" Jill asked as she came around the corner, carrying a cup of coffee that she set on the counter of the nurses' station. Her eyes swept over the jeans and t-shirt he was wearing. "You don't look like you are on duty."

He leaned against the counter and grinned, taking in her casual slacks and blouse. "I could say the same about you. Don't you usually wear scrubs when you are working? On top of that, I thought you were working in the ER now."

She stuck her tongue out at him playfully. "I am. But I am here by special request for a very important patient. And I'm assuming you are here for the same reason."

He nodded. "Yep. Normally I wouldn't spend my day off hanging around here, but I couldn't say no when I got the call. Like you said, this is for a very important patient. So how are things?"

Jill grinned. "They're doing fine. Mother and baby are both resting comfortably and daddy dearest is wearing a rut in the floor with all of his pacing."

He lifted a brow at her. "That's nice to know, but I meant you personally."

She shrugged. "I'm good. I miss working up here, but the ER hours work around my schedule better. What about you? How's the family?"

He chuckled. "They're doing fine. My brother and sister-in-law are about two steps away from the nut house trying to deal with their two rugrats, but they're making it."

"I bet those kids are getting so big," Jill sighed. "Andrew's three now, right?"

Rick nodded. "Yep! And Lizzy turned one not long ago. Andy shut the arcade down for a whole afternoon and they threw a huge party for the birthday girl. It was kind of scary actually. Everything was covered in cartoon girls from movies."

Jill stifled a giggle. "You mean the Disney Princesses?"

He snapped his fingers. "Yeah, that was it! Like I said, it was scary. Of course the worst part was listening to my mom go on and on because I showed up alone. She wanted to know where you were."

"Did you explain to her that we're not dating?" she asked.

He rolled his eyes. "Like that works with her. I told her that we were just friends, but she only listens to a fraction of what I say. So how's school going? Aren't you a full-fledged doctor yet?"

She laughed. "Hardly! Going to school only part-time makes things slow going. Luckily the grants and scholarships I got pay for all of that, but I have to keep my job here to pay my bills."

"I know the feeling," he agreed. "Andy offered me his old apartment above the arcade when he and Kathy bought the house, which would save me a ton of money, but I like my peace and quiet. I wouldn't get that living above a busy arcade."

"I guess you wouldn't," she said softly. "Besides, you make enough money to afford your own place. And I seriously doubt that you are going to be quitting your job anytime soon."

He flashed her a dashing smile. "Not as long as there are bad guys out there to catch. So where are the stars of the day at?"

Jill nodded toward the door directly across from the nurses' station. "They're in there. We're keeping them close this time. I know things have been quiet for three years, but never hurts to play it safe."

"Well, well, look what the cat dragged in," drawled a voice as Donna, who was a little rounder and sporting a few more laugh lines, joined them. "I've been seeing you around here a lot in the past couple of years, detective."

He laughed as he gave the motherly woman a one-armed hug. "I have been here quite a bit, haven't I? First Mamoru and Bridget had their little girl, and then Andy and Kathy had Lizzy. And now the person that brought me here for the first time has brought me back again. It must be a small world."

Donna's eyes narrowed behind her glasses. "It would be even smaller if you would find yourself some nice girl to settle down with and popped out a couple of babies too. I keep saying the same thing to Jill, but she never listens to me. She just keeps going on, running herself into the ground with school and work. We have enough doctors running around. Nurses are what we're short of. So she just needs to stay a nurse and get a man in her bed and a baby on her hip. Then I think she will be happy."

"Donna!" Jill hissed in mortification as she slapped her hands over blazing red face.

"Uh…um…I think I'll just leave you ladies to your conversation," Rick stammered as he made a hasty getaway toward the hospital room that Jill had pointed out.

"Was it something I said?" Donna asked innocently.

Jill whirled on her. "Just _what _was _that _about?"

The older woman shrugged. "I'm just trying to give the two of you a push in the right direction. You've been dancing around each other for over three years now, and you're not getting any younger. It's time for you to settle down. The man is crazy about you, and I know you have feelings for him. So why shouldn't the two of you hook up?"

Jill shook her head in exasperation. "Rick and I are just friends, hardly more than acquaintances really. There's nothing between us. Besides, I don't have time for a man. And he is definitely not on the lookout for a wife. He's already married to his job. How else do you think he made detective at his age? He's only twenty-eight."

"And you're only twenty-five," Donna retorted back. "I just don't want you to wake up one day and find yourself middle aged, lonely, and childless. Time runs forward, not backwards."

"I'll keep it in mind," Jill said dryly as she followed Rick's footsteps to the door of the hospital room. She knocked lightly before pushing it open.

Ilene Tsukino beamed a smile at her from where she was laying back against the raised head of the bed and several pillows. In her arms she held a pink blanket wrapped bundle.

Jill returned the smile. "Well I see it finally got quiet in here. I may not be a doctor yet, but I seriously doubt that there is anything wrong with that baby's lungs with the way she was carrying on earlier. How is the little princess doing?"

Ilene giggled. "Better now that she has been fed. There for a while I didn't think she was going to stop. She just kept drinking and drinking. But I think she has a full tummy now, so she's happy. It made me think about…well…before. I only had him with me about half a day, but he was much the same way. He seemed to have a big appetite and would drop off to sleep right after as long as he had a clean diaper."

"Honey," Ken sighed from where he stood by the bed. "I thought we said that we weren't going to let that time overshadow this time."

"Oh! I'm not!" she readily agreed, looking out the window into the bright summer day. "I just can't help but wonder sometimes where he is and what he is doing right now."

Rick, who had been standing by the window, straightened up. "I'm sure, wherever he is, he's fine. I'm sorry that I was never able to find him and bring him back to you, but what we did uncover before the trail went cold was that the children that were kidnapped were adopted out through an underground adoption ring. Only people with money would have been able to adopt one of those kids, so I'm sure that he's being taken care of."

Ilene wiped the few tears that had sprung to her eyes. "I believe you're right. And that does make me feel some better. So don't beat yourself up over not finding him. I know you did your best." Then she turned to Jill with a smile. "Would you like to hold her?"

"Absolutely!" Jill gushed as she accepted the baby into her arms and handled her with experienced hands. This child was much smaller than her older brother had been, barely weighing in at six pounds, but she was perfectly formed. Her softly rounded face was a healthy pink and wispy golden hair peeked out from under her knit hat.

"She's like a little china doll," Jill sighed as the baby's eyelids fluttered open to reveal irises that were the same shade of blue as the sky outside. "So have you decided on a name for this little one?"

Ilene nodded. "We're naming her Serena. Serena Usagi Tsukino."

* * *

_**3 Years Later**_

"Where's my mommy? I want my mommy!" the childish scream echoed through the ER as the doors hissed open and the paramedics rushed in pushing two gurneys with children on them. Several nurses converged on them.

"Dr. Baker, we need you over here," one of the nurses called out in a frantic voice.

Jill jerked a bit at the summons. Even though she had graduated medical school and had been working as an ER doctor for almost six months now, it still caught her off guard when someone addressed her as _doctor_. She quickly pushed it aside though and dove into the fray.

"What do we have?" she asked as she joined the group that was holding the thrashing girl, who appeared to be around four, down to the gurney as she continued to struggle and scream.

"Car accident," the lead paramedic reported, raising his voice to be heard above the girl's cries. "Victims are a girl, approximately four years old, and a boy, approximately around six. Both were unconscious in the back seat of the vehicle when we arrived on the scene and unresponsive. The boy is still unconscious, but the girl woke up a few minutes ago in a highly agitated state."

Jill looked down at the little girl, whose hair was a tangled snarl of dark chestnut waves around her head. Blood streaked her face from a gash just under her hairline and the dark sapphire blue of her irises were almost swallowed up by her dilated pupils. But there was something about the girl that screamed familiarity.

She forced herself to calm and then announced, "Okay. Let's move them into treatment areas and start drips on both of them. I want both of their blood typed and crossed in case we need to do a transfusion and have them prepped for CT-scans. And somebody page Dr. Mizuno and tell her that we need her assistance down here."

When the two gurneys were wheeled into adjoining, curtained off cubicles, the young girl began to scream louder, "Darien! Darien! Where are they taking my brother?"

Realization slammed into Jill at her words. Now she knew how she knew this girl. She was the daughter of Rick's closest friends. And the black haired boy that she had caught a glimpse of was their son. Oh god!

She bent down over the hysterical girl and took her cheeks between her palms. "Dani? That is your name, isn't it? Danielle Shields? Do you remember me? I was at your house a few months ago."

Dani's struggles began to slow down as she looked up to the woman above her. "I remember you. You came to a cookout with my Uncle Ricky."

"That's right," Jill told her as she smoothed back some of the blood stiffened hair from her face. "Sweetie, what I need you to do right now is calm down so that we can help you. You've been hurt, and we need to try to make you better."

"But Darien…" Dani whimpered.

"Open the curtain between the cubicles," Jill told the nurses. "If we want her to stay calm, then she needs to be able to see her brother."

A nurse scrambled to do as she asked, and Dani visibly relaxed once Darien came into view. Jill knew that the siblings were very close, so it did the girl good to see her brother nearby when in the middle of such chaos.

That thought made her wonder about Mamoru and Bridget. She was sure that they would have been in the car with the kids. How badly had they been injured? Were they going to be rushed in at any moment as well?

"Their parents?" she whispered to the paramedic that had been holding Dani's shoulders down as they wheeled her in.

The man looked at her sadly and gave a shake of his head. She knew in that moment that Mamoru and Bridget Shields were dead. Both of them had been orphans that had grown up in an orphanage, so they had no family to contact. But they did have a friend of the family. He was also both of the children's godfather.

"What do we have?" the blue haired, blue eyed Dr. Anne Mizuno asked as she entered the curtained off area.

Jill gave her the rundown of the situation, as well as what she had ordered so far. Dr. Mizuno had a small daughter at home, so her eyes misted a bit when she heard that these two children were now orphans without any family to look after them.

But when Jill informed her of a possible guardian for them she quickly reclaimed her professional composure and told her, "Call him. I don't know what the law will want to do with them, but those kids need someone that they know with them right now."

Jill nodded and rushed out into an area that was deemed safe for cell phone use. She pulled her cell phone from her pocket and quickly hit a speed dial number.

After a few rings it was answered. "Jill, I can't talk right now. Mamoru and Bridget were…"

"I know," she interrupted him. "I have Darien and Dani in the ER right now. Darien is still unconscious, but Dani is awake and upset. They need somebody with them that they know. Can you get here?"

He sighed. "Give me ten minutes. The captain won't let me near the site anyway since I knew them. Nobody told me that the kids were still alive. I thought they were all dead. The car is unrecognizable. It looks like Mamoru swerved to avoid something in the road and they smashed through a guardrail."

Jill squeezed her eyes shut as tears began to burn them. "I'm sorry. I know they were your friends, Rick."

"Darien and Dani are alive. And that's what is important right now," he replied softly. "How are they?"

"I haven't had a chance to do a full evaluation on them yet," she told him. "I called you as soon as I realized who they were. But I'm about to give them the works. Like I said, Darien is still unconscious and Dani is showing signs of head trauma as well. But the paramedics stabilized them on the way here, so hopefully they have a fighting chance."

Rick was quiet for a moment before he said softly, "I know you'll take care of them, Jill. You've always been passionate about your work. So I know they are in good hands."

* * *

_**1 Week Later**_

"What do you mean that social services came and took Dani away?" Rick raged as he slammed his hands down on Dr. Mizuno's desk.

Jill cringed back into the chair that she was sitting in. She'd known that he would take this news hard, and she didn't really blame him. He had spent practically every moment that he hadn't been working for the past week at the hospital with his godchildren, despite the fact that Darien couldn't even remember his own name and Dani had slipped into a silent depression upon learning of her parents' deaths.

He had split his time evenly between the two kids, who had been kept apart at the urging of the resident psychologist. Darien was suffering from amnesia and didn't even remember that he had a sister, while Dani was so traumatized that the staff felt it was best for her not to see her brother in this condition. She was already heartbroken at the loss of her parents that they were afraid of what impact this newest revelation would have on her.

Dr. Mizuno sat back with a sigh. "I know that you are not happy about this, detective. But Mamoru and Bridget Shields never drew up any legal papers for who would take guardianship of their children if something were to happen to them. They have no family to step up to claim them. And, in the eyes of the law, you were merely a friend. You are a young single man whose job calls him out at all hours of the day and night. So the government feels that it is best to take the children into the foster system."

"This is bullshit!" Rick snapped angrily. "Sure, my job demands crazy hours, but I would figure something out."

Dr. Mizuno shook her head. "I tried to stick up for you. I truly did. I know you care for those kids. But think about this carefully. Are you really prepared to take on the responsibility of caring for a six-year-old boy with amnesia and a four-year-old girl that hasn't spoken a word in a week? They need professional help and a stable life. Maybe it's best that they go into foster care. In time, they may even be adopted into new families."

"Separate families," Rick sneered.

"It might be for the best," Jill spoke up for the first time. "They could both start over. Darien's mind is a clean slate, and Dani is so young that the memory of her parents and brother will probably fade with time. It could be good for both of them."

Rick didn't like it, but he saw the wisdom of her words. "I guess you're right. When are they coming to get Darien?"

"I'm releasing him tomorrow," Dr. Mizuno told him. "He's made excellent progress and healed at an astonishingly fast rate. But I wanted to keep him for one more night to be sure."

Rick nodded. "Can I see him?"

Dr. Mizuno smiled. "Of course you can. Darien needs as much support as he can get right now. And I think he really looks forward to your visits."

"I'll ride up with you," Jill announced, standing. "I didn't mention it before since you've been so busy, but Ilene Tsukino is here again. She had another boy this time. They should be going home today and I want to say goodbye before they go. Darien's room is on the same floor."

Rick couldn't help but grin tiredly. "Another boy, huh? I bet Ken is over the moon about it."

Jill giggled. "That's putting it mildly. Of course Serena is still his little princess from what I hear. I was hoping to see her when I visited yesterday, but Ken had left her with a friend of theirs."

"I'm surprised that he let Serena out of his sight," he commented wryly as they left the office. "I was sure that he would be the most overprotective father in the world, given their history."

Jill shrugged as she punched the button for the elevator. "I guess time can heal all wounds. I know they still grieve for the loss of their first child. But having Serena, and now Sammy, has comforted them a lot."

Rick smirked. "Sammy? I'm assuming that's a nickname."

She rolled her eyes as the elevator opened and she stepped inside. "His full name is Samuel Shingo Tsukino. But Ilene likes calling him Sammy, and I think it will stick. It suits the little guy."

Less than a minute later, the elevator opened to show Ken standing behind Ilene, who was sitting a wheelchair, at the nurses' station while Donna was going over their discharge information.

Ilene perked up at the sight of them. "I was hoping that I would see you guys before I left."

Rick plastered on a smile as he stepped off the elevator. "I heard that your family has grown again."

Ilene shifted the bundle in her arms to show him the sleeping face of her family's new addition. "This is Sammy," she announced proudly.

Rick took a few moments to look over the newborn. The baby looked healthy, but seemed to lack the rosy glow that his sister and, according to Jill, his older brother had shared. The few wisps of hair peeking from under his hat also looked to be a couple of shades darker than the older two Tsukino siblings. But overall he was still an adorable baby.

"He's a handsome young man," he pronounced in his most generous voice. Being around little babies still made him a bit nervous. Kids didn't bother him once they learned how to walk and talk, and he had enjoyed several hours of playing with Andrew, Lizzy, Darien, and Dani. But tiny babies were a different story.

"Yes he is," Ilene replied proudly. "I think he looks just like his daddy. But Ken says that he has my eyes. But a lot of babies have blue eyes when they are born. They could change."

Ken chuckled. "Serena's haven't. They are still just as blue as they were the day she was born."

"Where is the little princess?" Jill asked curiously. "I was kind of hoping that she would be here. I haven't seen her since she was just a baby."

"What do you mean? She's right here," Ken said as he looked down beside him. When he didn't see the little girl that he had been expecting to see, his head whipped around in panic. "She was just here. She was carrying the roses that we bought for Ilene."

Rick immediately went into police mode. "She probably just wandered off. Kids can be bad about that. Just give Jill and I a minute to look around. I bet we'll find her."

The two of them took off down the hall, glancing into every room that they passed and knocking quietly on the doors that were closed to ask the occupants whether they had seen the little girl. No one had.

They were becoming desperate as they neared the end of the hall. But then they heard childish voices coming from the room that belonged to Darien.

"So why were you crying?" a high-pitched, lisping voice asked.

A wavering, tear filled voice answered. "I don't know. I guess because I don't know who I am. I feel like nobody wants to be my friend."

"That's not true. I'll be your friend," the first voice replied indignantly. "Here, I'll give you one of these roses to show you that I'll be your friend. My daddy and I bought them for my mommy because she had a new baby, but I'm sure she won't mind if I give one to you."

Rick and Jill snuck up to the slightly open door and peeked inside.

A tiny little girl with golden hair swept up into pigtails that trailed down from buns on top of her head stood next to Darien as he sat on the side the side of his hospital bed. She held a red rose out toward the black haired boy.

"Here. Take it. It's a gift," she told him solemnly.

Darien wiped the tears from his eyes before he gave her a watery smile. "Thanks a lot."

Jill waited a few moments before she pushed the door open and said softly, "Serena, sweetie, your mommy and daddy are worried about you. We should probably go back and let them know that you are okay."

"Okay!" Serena chirped cheerfully as she started to turn away. She paused as a small hand suddenly grabbed her arm.

"I'll see you again, won't I?" Darien asked in a slightly desperate voice.

Serena pursed her rosebud lips for a moment. "Sure you will. My house isn't far away. I'll have my mommy or daddy bring me to see you again."

Darien sighed as he let her go. "Great! I'll be waiting."

Jill's heart nearly broke as she escorted Serena back to her family. The girl had meant well by making her promise, but she knew that Darien was going to be moved into government custody the next day. In all likelihood, the two would never see one another again. Tokyo was a big city after all.

Back in the hospital room, Darien stared down at the rose in his hand for several long moments before he looked up at Rick and said, "She was just like a princess."

* * *

**A/N **So what did you think? I know it might seem really AU at the moment, and it is to a point, but the canon story will start to weave its way in soon. So Serena has an older brother who is MIA, and Darien has a sister. I'm sure all of you are starting to put the pieces together. Please, drop me whatever comments you can. I love to hear what you guys think. Catch ya later. Be safe! Lots of love and hugs!

~Sere~


	2. Family Ties

**A/N** Hey everyone! I was just sitting around on this incredibly dreary and rainy day, working on my next chapter for Bad Boys. I was growing frustrated with it though, so I decided to take a break from it for a few minutes and pulled up the next chapter of this story and did some quick editing to give my brain a chance to simmer down. And since so many of you seemed to like the first chapter, I thought I'd go ahead and post this. Big hugs and thank yous to everyone that reviewed Chapter 1. Forgive me for not taking the time to list each of you individually, but I hope you all know how much I appreciate each and every one of you. Now, moving on!

_ENJOY!_

* * *

A Star-Crossed Love

Chapter 2

Family Ties

* * *

**_15 Years Later – Present Day_**

"I don't know why I keep coming back here year after year," Darien grumbled as he weaved his way between the headstones in the cemetery. "It's not like I can remember them anyway."

The blonde woman beside him nudged him with an elbow to the ribs. "You may not be able to remember your life with them, but they were your parents. It's a sign of respect to leave some flowers on their graves once a year to at least acknowledge them."

"It's a crappy thing to do on my birthday though," he muttered under his breath. When he heard a growl next to him he quickly amended, "But I get what you're saying, Serena. When did my little Meatball Head get to be so smart?"

Serena's blue eyes flashed in annoyance. "Watch it with the _Meatball Head _comments, buddy! You know, it's not too late for me to return your birthday gift and get my money back."

He smirked at her. "What? So you can spend it all on milkshakes and video games at the arcade instead? Andrew would be thrilled."

She sniffed imperiously. "I won't deny my weakness for Drew's milkshakes, but I have hardly touched a video game in almost a year. Besides, my money is no good there. I don't think I've paid for anything there since I was fourteen."

Darien chuckled. "That's only because you saved his life. What kind of man would he be if he made the great Sailor Moon pay for all of the food she inhales?"

"You are determined to push my buttons today, aren't you?" she demanded with a barely suppressed grin. "Besides, it's all your fault anyway. Drew wouldn't have needed saving and wouldn't have found out everybody's secret identities if you hadn't let Beryl monkey with your head and almost blown the arcade up looking for the scouts' control room."

He conceded gracefully. "Okay, I have to give you that one, even if you are evil to bring up that subject." He tugged on one of her golden pigtails with his free hand. The other one was full of the red roses that he had used his powers to conjure earlier.

Serena squealed and danced slightly away from him. "Maybe I am evil sometimes. But that's why you love me."

His dark blue eyes lingered on her beloved face for a moment before he grinned. "I do love you. How could I not? I think you had my heart from the moment you hit me in the head with that crumpled up test paper. Hell, I may have even been in love with you long before that. When I was growing up in the orphanage I always remembered the little girl that gave me a rose while I was in the hospital."

Serena wrapped both of her arms around his and sighed happily as they continued to walk. "I still can't believe that we were together for a year before we figured out that we had met each other before."

Darien chuckled. "It's not that hard to believe. You were only three, and I was a six year old recovering from head trauma. Sometimes I'm surprised that we remember that day at all."

"It was fate," she declared. "I may have barely been more than a toddler at the time, but something pulled me to you that day. After all, where would the moon princess be without her prince?"

"Now you're just being silly," he told her teasingly. But his steps slowed as he reached the monument that bore the name Shields. Under it were the names of his parents, their dates of birth, and their identical dates of death…which also happened to be his sixth birthday.

He stepped forward cautiously, laying the roses at the base of the stone before quickly retreating back to Serena's side. Her comforting presence soothed him like nothing else could.

Then he sensed someone else join them, and he turned to look at the man who was slowly approaching them. "Rick," he greeted him warmly.

"Darien. Serena," Rick returned just as friendly. "I was hoping to find you here."

"Hi, Rick!" Serena gushed in her normally enthusiastic way. "I haven't seen you in a while. How is Jill doing?"

Rick grinned broadly. "She's good. Busy at work like always. But she loves her job."

A few months after Mamoru and Bridget's death, Rick had finally asked Jill to officially become a couple. To his surprise she had said yes, and the couple had embarked on a whirlwind romance. They had married only six months later. After their wedding they had tried to gain custody of Darien and Dani. But by then Dani had been taken in by a loving foster family and had come out of her shell. Darien, on the other hand, had still been dealing with the after effects of his amnesia and had required counseling. Thanks to the money left in trust to him by his parents, he had been placed in an orphanage that was more like a boarding school than an orphanage, and he had been making decent progress. So the courts had ruled for the children to remain where they were.

That had ended up being for the best, because a few years later Jill had been diagnosed with leukemia, and it would have been a struggle to try to raise two children while she had been going through treatment and the sometimes long hours that Rick had to work. It had been a long, hard battle, but eventually she had gone into remission. They had tried to start a family of their own after that, but after three miscarriages they had stopped. The pain was just too much.

But, with the blessing of the courts, they had stayed active in both Darien and Dani's lives. Although Darien was still unaware after all of these years that he had a sister, a person that was actually a true blood relative. He had found a way, early on, to deal with the disability that his amnesia had given him. True, he had been quiet and quite reclusive, but he had found a stability that he could live with. And his therapist had thought it wise to leave him be until he was older.

But Darien was a man now, twenty-one years old, and he deserved to know the truth. Rick laid the bouquet of assorted flowers that he had brought next to Darien's roses before turning to look at the younger man.

"Can you and I have a talk?" he asked quietly.

Serena read the seriousness in the older man's face. "I think I'll just pop over to the arcade for a chat with Drew and a milkshake. The girls are supposed to be meeting me for a late lunch there anyway."

Darien gave her a crooked grin. "I just hope that you're not planning some big surprise for my birthday."

"Nope!" she chirped, giving him a big hug. "You already know about the party tonight. We are just finalizing the details. But I will tell you that there will be two birthday cakes. Lita and Drew both insisted on making one for you."

"Then I'm sure you'll be in seventh heaven, Meatball Head," he teased. "You could probably devour one of those cakes by yourself."

"Jerk!" Serena replied, but in a playful tone. She gave him a quick hug before she twirled away. "I'll see you later!"

Darien watched her as she scurried away.

"You love her a lot, don't you?" Rick asked, ignoring the flush that stained the younger man's cheeks. "Don't get embarrassed. There is nothing wrong with loving a woman. In fact, I understand that you proposed to Serena and are now at the top of Ken Tsukino's hit list."

"Then you heard wrong," Darien growled back. "I did ask Serena to marry me on her eighteenth birthday a little over a month ago. But I went to Ken first and asked for his permission. He was hesitant at first, but he gave us his blessing. I have to admit that I was kind of shocked. He has always been so overprotective of Serena."

Rick had to bite back the words that bubbled to his lips. Just like Darien had been denied the existence of his sister, Ilene and Ken Tsukino had decided to not share the existence of an older brother with their children. As far as Serena and Sammy knew, Serena was the oldest child.

Rick pushed those thoughts away as he focused on Darien. "Do you remember when you were ten, and you asked me about your parents' families?"

Darien nodded. "Yes. I remember. I was curious about whether I had any extended family at the time. You told me that my parents had both been orphans and that we had no family."

"That's true," Rick agreed. "I also told you that there were things that I would tell you when you were older. You are now twenty one, and I think you are ready to know the whole story." He reached into a pocket of his jacket and pulled out a thick manila envelope.

"This is for you," he told him. "This holds the answers to some of your questions. I sealed it up tightly; so only open it if you want to know some about your past. I'm leaving the decision in your hands. If you have any questions I will be around."

Darien hesitated for a moment before he took the envelope. "I'll think about it. I'll let you know if I have any questions."

Rick nodded. "Okay. I assume, in the meantime, that Jill and I will see you at the party tonight."

Darien grimaced. "I'm sure you will. Serena always makes a huge production out of this."

Rick chuckled. "It's big deal. It's not everyday that you turn twenty-one. You should enjoy it."

"I'll try," Darien told him. "I guess I'll see you later."

Rick patted his shoulder. "Go on and find Serena. And tell her that I'm sorry for interrupting you two."

Darien grinned. "I'm sure she didn't mind. She's always very understanding about things. Knowing her, she's probably already polished off two milkshakes by now."

Rick laughed humorously. "Tell Drew to put whatever she ordered on my tab."

"The tab that you never pay?" Darien returned slyly with a raised brow.

Rick shrugged. "What can I say? I'm family. My big brother makes enough money off that arcade to be able to afford to give me a free meal every now and then."

Darien snorted. "You're hardly in the poor house either. You are a senior detective and your wife is the assistant chief of emergency medicine. My whole apartment would fit in your living room."

"It is a lot of space for just two people. But Jill and I had different plans when we bought that house," the older man murmured, a sad look flashing briefly in his green eyes. A moment later it was gone and replaced with a smile as he shooed Darien away. "Get out of here, kid, and enjoy the rest of your birthday!"

Darien laughed and turned to leave, absently sliding the envelope into an inside pocket of his jacket as he went. Rick wasn't sure what Darien would do with the information that was inside it, but it was his decision. He couldn't force the younger man to know the truth about his family, but he had at least put the ball in his court.

"He looks really happy," a soft voice spoke up behind him.

Rick turned and smiled when he saw the young woman that had just stepped out from behind a large monument a short distance away. She was tall, with a slim, athletic build. Her long chestnut ponytail would appear dark brown, almost black in dimmer light. But under the bright sunlight it gleamed with warm, reddish-copper highlights. Her dark sapphire eyes shown wetly in her delicately boned face as she stared after Darien, who was almost out of sight.

"Hey, Dani-girl," Rick greeted her softly. "He is happy. I think Serena has a lot to do with it, though."

Dani smiled gently. "I'm sure she has. He's seemed a lot less melancholy when I've caught glimpses of him the past few years. He smiles a lot now instead of always looking so serious like he did when we were little. I was already here when I heard him and Serena coming, so I hid so they wouldn't see me. I couldn't hear them well, but I could tell that they were teasing each other though. They sound so in love."

Rick smirked. "And what about you? You're nineteen now. I bet you have the young men lining up at your door."

"Uncle Rick!" she gasped in surprise. "You know I don't date. I'm far too busy with school and my dancing to have time for men. Momma-Belle would be thrilled if I did. But Papa-Phil would probably have a heart attack."

Rick threw back his head and laughed. He didn't doubt her words though. Her foster parents, Belle and Phil Richards, had taken Dani in immediately after her release from the hospital, and they had treated her as if she was one of their own. They had even tried to adopt her when she had been seven, but adoption requirements were hard to meet and they hadn't qualified. But they had raised Dani to adulthood, and looked on her as their daughter.

Dani loved them in return, but she had never forgotten her real family. Everyone had thought that they would fade from her mind in time, but she had made sure to think of her parents and brother every day of her life. And remembering those memories had kept them bright and clear in her head.

She walked forward now and laid a bouquet of white roses next to the red ones that Darien had left. She knelt in front of the stone marker as she reached out with trembling fingers to trace their names.

"Mommy. Daddy. I still miss you so much," she whispered shakily. "I hope you're proud of me, though. I'm about to start my second year of college, daddy. And mommy, I'm still dancing. I've got a small dance part in a musical that's coming up soon at the community theater, and I'm even teaching part-time at my old dance school."

She broke down then, tears streaming down her cheeks. "I know I can never get you back, but if only I could have Darien in my life, I would be happy. It's been so hard all of these years, living so close to him, but being so far away at the same time. I'm happy for him though. His fiancée seems like a wonderful girl, and he has lots of friends."

She felt hands under her arms, lifting her to her feet. And then she was sobbing into Rick's chest.

"Shh…" he tried to soothe her. "There's no sense in getting yourself worked up like this. I know you miss them. I do too. Your parents were two of my closest friends. And you may have your brother back in your life soon."

She hiccupped as she looked up at the man who had been like an uncle and the only tie she'd had to her family for years. "But what if he doesn't want to know? What if he never opens that envelope? Or worse, what if he does open it and doesn't want to have anything to do with me? I don't think I could handle that kind of rejection."

Rick hugged her close and smoothed a hand down her wavy ponytail in a fatherly gesture. "Let's give Darien some credit here. He's not a stupid boy. He'll do what he feels like is right for him. It just may take a little time."

She squeezed him tightly around the waist. "I hope you're right."

Neither one of them noticed Darien standing several yards away, watching them with shocked blue eyes. And neither of them heard when he spun on his heel and ran.

* * *

Andrew leaned against the counter of the arcade and grinned at the girl across from him. "Another?"

Serena nodded eagerly as she slurped the last bit of milkshake in her glass up through the straw. Then she smacked her lips together. "You bet! I never get tired of your milkshakes, Drew."

He laughed as he moved to scoop ice cream into the blender. "You better be careful, or you won't have any room for cake tonight."

She stuck her tongue out at him. "Remember who you're talking to here. Some people may pride themselves on being able to hold their liquor. I, on the other hand, pride myself on being able to hold my milkshakes. Besides, the party is hours away. I'll burn off what I've taken in by then. We still have the decorating to do. I just wish the girls would hurry up and get here. Raye and Mina were supposed to go to the party supply store to pick up balloons, streamers, and stuff."

Andrew chuckled as he popped the blender onto its base and started it. "You actually trust your friends to shop for decorations for your man's birthday party?"

She rolled her eyes. "Of course I trust them. Raye and Mina both have excellent taste and a great eye for detail. Granted, Mina can go a bit overboard, but Raye will keep her in line and within budget. Anyway, they know what Darien likes and dislikes."

"Which means this place will be decorated all in red and black," Andrew muttered as he poured the shake into a glass. "Doesn't that seem a bit depressing for a birthday party? It sounds more like Halloween."

Serena waited until she had her new treat in front of her and had taken a large sip before she replied, "Well those are his signature colors. Could you see us throwing a party for Mr. Tuxedo Macho surrounded by pastels?"

He held his hands up in surrender. "Okay. You win. Far be it for me to question the judgment of the sailor scouts."

He was literally saved by the bell, or at least the chime that rang when the glass doors of the arcade opened and four women walked in.

"The party brigade has arrived!" Mina sang as she held up bulging bags that bore the logo of the local party supply store.

"Ditz!" Raye growled next to her. Then she gestured to the similar bags she carried as she smiled at Serena. "I know it looks like a lot, but I kept Miss Shopaholic on a tight leash. They had a major sale going on at the store, and we got some great deals. So where should we stash this stuff?"

"Just set it in the office until later," Andrew told them. "We really can't do anything until business starts winding down. Amy, you can put those gifts you're carrying in there too."

The blue haired girl looked grateful behind the stack of wrapped gifts she carried in her arms.

"This cake has to be refrigerated," Lita announced, holding up the fairly large, decadent looking chocolate cake in her hands. "I hope you have room for it."

"I saved you a spot," Andrew reassured her. "Just slide it into the big fridge in the back of the kitchen next to mine."

"Will do," Lita chirped as she started for the swinging door to the kitchen.

What happened next happened so fast that no one saw it coming. Evidently, one of the arcade patrons had spilled some soda on the floor and it hadn't caught Andrew's notice yet. Lita stepped in it, and her slick soled shoes caused her to start slipping and sliding…right toward the counter.

_SPLAT!_

Serena squealed in surprise as she suddenly found her face full of what had been, until just a moment before, one of Darien's birthday cakes. She blinked slowly, chocolate dripping from her lashes and sliding down her neck as she tried to process what had happened. Then noise erupted around her.

"Omigosh! Serena, are you okay? I'm so sorry!" Lita exclaimed.

"Oh dear," Amy murmured as she grabbed a handful of napkins and began trying to wipe most of the mess from Serena's face.

"Oh for crying out loud, Andrew! You're making it worse! Give me that!" Mina snapped at the blonde man as she snatched the towel he had been using to swipe at Serena's hair. The golden strands now looked like they were streaked with mud.

Raye was bent over at the waist, chortling gleefully. "That's a good look for you, Meatball Head."

Serena's big blue eyes filled with tears and everyone braced for her shrieking wail. She was normally the happiest, perkiest person in the world. But when she got upset she could shatter glass with her voice.

But she surprised everybody when she only moaned sorrowfully, "All that glorious chocolate…ruined. This has to be a bad omen." Then she looked down at the pretty pink blouse and white capris that she had chosen to wear that day because Darien always said he liked that outfit on her, and she burst into tears. There was no way the stains were ever going to come out of her clothes.

"What happened?" Darien growled as he stalked up to them. Everyone had been so occupied with Serena that they hadn't seen him come in. He now stood with his arms folded across his chest as he eyed his fiancée cautiously.

Raye was still gasping with laughter. "Serena decided to get up close and personal with your birthday cake."

"Raye!" Amy and Mina admonished the dark haired girl in shocked tones.

Now the wailing started.

"It wasn't my fault!" Serena shrieked.

"No it wasn't. It was mine," Lita quickly spoke up. She glared at the puddle on the floor that had caused the problem. "I slipped in that puddle and went sliding. Serena was just sitting here on the stool, but it was like she was a magnet or something. The cake just went right to her."

Darien sighed heavily as he ran his fingers through his hair. "Come on, Serena. We should probably get you home so you can shower and change."

"That will take forever," she moaned. "You know how long it takes me to shampoo and condition all of this hair. And it will take longer than ever since I've got to scrub the chocolate out of it. Then I'll have to dry it before I can put it up again. I'll never get the decorations for your party done in time if I do all of that."

"Don't worry about a thing," Mina exclaimed, slipping into her Sailor Venus, former leader of the scouts mode. "Raye, Amy, and I can handle decorating. And I'm sure Lita can fix the cake problem."

"Are you kidding? I could whip a chocolate cake up in my sleep," Lita announced.

"I don't see what the big deal is. We still have my cake," Andrew grumbled.

Lita swatted his arm. "And do you really think that one cake is going to be enough to feed everybody that will be here tonight?"

"Let's get while the getting is good," Darien said softly, taking Serena by the hand and tugging her to the door as bickering broke out among their friends. Then he steered her into a side alley. "We'll take the back way as far as we can so you don't have to parade down the sidewalk, covered in chocolate, for everyone to see."

His voice was gentle, but there was a brittleness to it that prompted Serena to ask, "Sweetie, is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine. I'm just a little tired. I didn't sleep well last night," he told her with a smile. But it wasn't his usual smile. His eyes didn't light up the way they normally did when he smiled at her.

This worried Serena. "Are you sure? Did something happen during your talk with Rick?"

"I don't want to talk about it," he snapped, much harsher than he had meant to.

She flinched at his tone. "Okay. We won't talk about it."

He stopped walking and pulled her toward him to kiss her sticky forehead. "I'm sorry, Angel. I don't mean to sound like such an ass. I just have a lot on my mind right now."

She gave him a hesitant smile. "It's okay. I understand. I love you, Darien."

Those words always sent a thrill through him. "I love you too, Serena."

* * *

Thirty minutes later Darien stomped into his apartment and banged the door shut behind him. He had delivered Serena home and into the capable hands of her mother. He had hung around for a few minutes, listening to Ilene assure her daughter that her outfit wasn't ruined and would be good as new if they got it into the wash quickly. And as Serena was preparing to bustle off to the shower he had told her that he was feeling really tired and was going to run home for a quick power nap.

She had looked a bit concerned at his words, but had sent him off with a smile after he had promised her that he would pick her up later so that they could enjoy a quiet dinner together before they headed to his, and he shuddered at the thought, birthday party.

He had walked slowly through the park after that, on his way home, as he tried to sort out what he had seen earlier.

_**Flashback**_

He was walking across the cemetery, and he was acutely conscious of the weight of the envelope that rested in the inside pocket of his jacket. He wasn't quite sure if he wanted to open it or not. When he had been younger he had been naturally curious about his deceased parents. Despite living at the orphanage, Rick had been a constant visitor to him, just as he had been while he had been in the hospital.

Rick had been his parents' best friend, and he had been like a doting uncle to him over the years, breaking him out of the orphanage whenever he could to take him to the zoo, amusement parks, and museums. And that had happened quite often since Darien had been allowed a certain amount of freedom since his behavior and grades were always so good.

And once Rick had married Jill, she had become a member of their group as well, and he had come to think of her as a favorite aunt. As he had gotten older he had been allowed to spend some weekends and holidays at their home, and she had fawned over him in a motherly way. During the years that she had been sick, Darien had devoted his free time to visiting her and doing things around the house, like vacuuming, washing dishes, doing laundry, and cutting the lawn. That had been when he'd first discovered that he had a green thumb, and he had even planted a small flower garden in a shady corner of their backyard where Jill could sit and enjoy it on days when she felt like going outside. He thanked god everyday that that special woman had beaten her illness, and he prayed that it never returned.

During all of this time, Rick had always answered any questions that he'd had about his parents, and had been full of funny little stories about them both. Rick had met both of them their first year of high school, and they had immediately clicked. They had been together all through high school and had even shared an apartment during college. Later he had stood as witness when Mamoru and Bridget married, and they had named him Darien's godfather when he was born.

The three of them had gone on with their lives, but had remained extremely close. Rick had joined the police force and had climbed the ladder to detective in an astonishingly short time. Both of the Shields' had been attorneys, and they had built a booming practice almost as soon as they had accepted their law degrees.

Darien even had several of their possessions and a slew of photos, thanks to Rick. He had been responsible for packing up their things and selling the house after their deaths. Most of the furniture and such had been sold, and the clothes given to charity, but there were several things that had personal meaning that he'd held onto. And when Darien had filed for his emancipation at fifteen, he had given him several boxes that he had saved for him.

This thought brought Darien up short. There had been something that he had wanted to ask Rick about, but he had forgotten it in the aftermath of laying hands on that envelope. He had been digging around in the closet of his guest bedroom several days ago, looking for a book he thought he might have packed away by mistake, he was a horrible bookworm, when he'd opened a box that had been full of odds and ends that had belonged to his mother. He had just been about to close it when something had caught his eye. He'd reached in and pulled out a tiny little ballet slipper.

He'd recognized what it was because a couple of years before, when Rini had been there for a visit and it had been Halloween, she had wanted to dress up as a fairy princess. Serena and Ilene had taken her to a shop that sold second hand costumes and such, and she had bought a complete ballerina outfit, leotard, tutu, slippers and all. Serena herself had painstakingly sewed the gauzy wings onto the costume herself, and her fingers had been covered in band-aids from pinpricks for a few days after that, but Rini had been thrilled with the outcome, and she had been a beautiful fairy princess.

Thinking that his future daughter must have left the slipper behind and it had ended up in there by accident, he started to toss it back in the box. But then a thought had struck him. Rini had been ten years old that Halloween, and this slipper was much too small to have fit on her foot. It was meant to be worn on a much younger girl's foot.

Darien figured it was probably nothing. Maybe it had been his mom's when she was little. But for some reason he wanted to ask Rick about it. And he really didn't want to do that in the middle of the crowd at tonight's party. So he turned back around and headed back the way he had come. It wouldn't take a minute to ask the man.

But when he drew close to where his parents' graves were, he pulled up short and gaped in shock. There was Rick, embracing a woman as he stroked her hair. The woman was plastered against his chest with her arms around his waist.

They appeared to be talking, but he couldn't hear what they were saying. He also wasn't close enough to see the woman clearly, despite having excellent vision, thanks to his alter ego. But he could tell that she was young. If he had to guess, she might be in her early twenties at most. But whoever she was, Rick seemed to know her well. He was holding her as if she were someone precious to him.

Anger sparked deep inside him at the sight. He had never in a million years dreamed that Rick would ever cheat on Jill. They had been through so much together, and they always seemed to be so in love. How could Rick be standing, in the middle of a graveyard of all places, embracing a woman who looked young enough to be his daughter? He was a forty-three year old married man.

Darien's hand twitched toward the pocket where he kept his transformation rose. He was tempted, oh so tempted, to transform into Tuxedo Mask and intervene, for Jill's sake. But in the end he simply turned and ran away, hurt and disillusionment pounding through him as he thought that he didn't know the man, who had been the closest thing to a father that he could remember, as well as he'd thought.

_**End Flashback**_

Darien stalked across his spotless living room and flung himself down on the couch, his mind reeling. He still couldn't quite wrap his head around the thought that Rick would be screwing around on his wife. It just didn't make any sense.

He was surprised to feel that the tiredness that he had made up as an excuse to Serena earlier was now a reality. Maybe if he caught a quick nap he would be able to think clearer. He set the alarm on his cell phone to wake him up in an hour and lay back on the couch as he closed his eyes.

* * *

_"Doesn't the moon look pretty, Darien?" Dani asked as she lay beside him on a blanket spread across the grass of their backyard. "It looks like a giant snow globe."_

_Darien chuckled as he cast a glance over at his younger sister. "Yeah, it's pretty. Too bad it's just a chunk of rock floating around in space."_

_She sat up to glare at him. "It is not! My teacher told us a story the other day about how there used to be a kingdom on the moon. There was a king, a queen, a prince, and a princess, and they lived in a big, shiny castle."_

"_They tell you too many fairytales in preschool," he snorted in return. "I've looked at books in the library. The moon is a lump of rock and dust with very little gravity."_

_Her dark blue eyes widened. "What is gravity?"_

_He smirked. "It's an invisible force that holds you down so you don't float away. You'll learn about it when you start real school."_

_She jerked her chin at him. "Just because you're older and starting first grade doesn't make you smarter than me."_

_He tugged playfully on her dark, wavy, chestnut hair. "Don't worry. You'll catch up to me eventually."_

"_Darien. Dani," a female voice called to them. "It's time for bed, sweethearts. What are you two doing out here?"_

_Both children turned to see a woman with long chestnut hair and warm brown eyes walking toward them. At her side was a tall man with midnight black hair and glittering sapphire eyes._

"_We were watching the sky, mommy," Dani squealed excitedly. "Isn't it pretty?"_

_Bridget tilted her head back to look. "Yes it is. But the moon is so bright tonight that it is drowning out the stars."_

"_But the moon is the prettiest of all. Right, Darien?" she insisted._

_He rolled his eyes. "Only if you believe in fairytales about people living on the moon."_

"_Everybody needs a fairytale or two to believe in their lives," Mamoru told his son. "Sometimes I think the world could use a few more fairytales."_

"_Maybe you'll dream them up tonight while you are sleeping," Bridget giggled. "In the meantime it's time for you two to get your baths and into bed. Tomorrow is a big day. Our Darien turns six, and we are going to a festival."_

Then the dream morphed into another scene.

_"Did you two have fun?" Bridget asked as she turned to look at the children in the backseat._

"_I sure did," Darien exclaimed. "I still can't believe that dad knocked down all those milk bottles with just one little ball."_

_Mamoru caught his eye in the rearview mirror and winked. "What can I say? When you've got it, you've got it."_

"_What do you have, daddy?" Dani asked innocently. Then she screeched, "Daddy, look out!"_

_There was something large and black looming in the road ahead of them. Mamoru cursed and slammed on the brakes as he jerked the wheel to avoid it. Then there was the grinding of metal on metal as the car slammed into the guardrail. _

_Soft, tiny fingers gripped Darien's hand as a childish voice screamed, "Darien!"_

Darien jerked awake on his couch, sweat streaming down his face and into his eyes. He took several moments to catch his breath and get his bearings. After that, he checked the time on his cell phone. He had only slept about half of the hour he had allotted himself.

He pushed himself up from the couch and stumbled into the bathroom where he washed his sweaty face in cold water. Afterward he stared at his reflection in the mirror. What had that dream been about? He'd recognized his parents from the pictures he had of them. But who had the little girl been? She'd seemed so familiar.

He made his way from the bathroom to the kitchen, where he pulled a bottle of water from the refrigerator. He was gulping down the cold liquid when his eyes landed on his jacket that he had thrown across a chair in the entry hall earlier. The edge of the manila envelope peeked out at him.

He set the bottle of water aside and walked toward the jacket like he was in a trance. Did the key to his dream lie within that envelope? What's more, did he have the courage to open it?

He pulled the envelope out of the pocket and walked back into the living room, where he sank to his knees beside the coffee table and set it on the glass top. He stared at it for a full five minutes before he reached for it with shaking hands. Rick had seemed to think that there was something important inside that he should know. So maybe he should open it.

He took a deep breath and ripped away the tape that sealed the flap shut. Then he reached inside and pulled out a small stack of papers and photographs.

The papers on top were copies of the official police reports that had been taken the night of the car accident that had made his mind a blank slate. He glanced over the reports quickly. The car had crashed through the guardrail and been discovered halfway down an embankment. Two adults, later identified as Mamoru and Bridget Shields, had been found in the front seat and pronounced dead at the scene. A boy, later identified as Darien Shields, age six, had been unconscious in the back seat and transported to the hospital.

Darien was scanning all of this, barely reading the words. He was about to set it to the side when the next few lines caught his attention, making him read on.

He murmured out loud as he read, "A second child, later identified as Danielle Shields, age four, was also discovered unconscious in the back seat of the car. At the time of transport, both siblings were unresponsive but stable…Siblings?"

Darien's mind whirled. Did he have a sibling? Was the little girl he had seen in his dreams really his little sister? He pawed through the stack before him, noting that they were official looking documents that had been issued by the courts. But he wasn't interested in those.

He finally found what he was looking for at the bottom of the pile. It was only a handful of photos, maybe a half dozen in all, but they told the story of a life he'd never known existed.

There was one that showed him at about three years old, standing next to his mother as she balanced a toddler girl with chestnut hair like hers on her hip. There was another one that featured him, his mom, his dad, and the girl on what looked like Christmas morning. Wrapping paper was strewn all around while a gigantic Christmas tree gleamed in the background. Another showed him next to the girl while she blew out four candles atop a birthday cake.

There were a few more showing the entire family, but what made him catch his breath was the one on the bottom. It was obviously a high school graduation photo. And the young woman in it beamed a smile at the camera as she held her diploma up proudly. Her dark hair gleamed with reddish tints under the sunlight and her dark blue eyes sparkled like sapphires.

Darien stared in shock. This was his sister, the sister that he didn't remember having. But his disbelief went even further when he realized that she was the woman that he had seen Rick with earlier. That meant that what he'd witnessed hadn't been a tryst between lovers, but a man offering comfort to a grieving young woman.

Darien jumped to his feet. He had a sister! A real life, breathing, blood relative! He wondered if she remembered him and their parents. Or had she suffered from the same amnesia that he had? Earlier he hadn't known if he wanted to know the truth that the envelope held. Now he wanted to know it all. He wanted to see his sister with his own eyes.

He jumped up, running for the door. He paused only long enough to shove his feet into his shoes and grab his keys, and then he was gone. There was one person who could give him the answers that he was seeking. And it was time for him to talk.

Barely two minutes later, Darien roared out of his parking garage on his blue motorcycle. He had paused only long enough to pull on his helmet before firing the bike up and taking off.

Less than ten minutes later he pulled up in front of a modest, two story home in one of the more residential districts. He whipped his helmet off and hung it on the handlebar before stomping up to the front door and ringing the doorbell. He tapped his foot impatiently as he counted off the seconds until it was answered.

"Darien, what a surprise," Jill greeted as she opened the door. "I figured you and Serena would be busy with all sorts of plans today."

Darien stepped by her into the foyer before asking, "Is Rick here? I really need to talk with him."

Jill's look turned apprehensive. "Yes he is. He just came in a little while ago and was going to take a shower. What's the matter honey?"

Darien whirled on her with frantic eyes. "I know about Danielle. And I need to know where I can find her."

Jill gasped as her hand crept up to her throat. "You know about Dani? I guess you must have opened the envelope. None of us expected you to do it so quickly. You better let me get Rick. He can explain things better than I can."

"I'm already here," Rick said as he came down the stairs, his hair damp from his shower. "Let's go into the living room and make ourselves comfortable."

The three of them filed into the living room and took seats. But the air around them was thick with tension. Rick and Jill sat together on the love seat while Darien took the chair.

After several long, silent seconds, Rick sighed heavily. "I imagine you have a ton of questions, Darien."

"Is Danielle truly my sister?" Darien fired off, not wasting any time.

Rick smiled wryly. "She prefers to go by Dani. And yes, she is your younger sister by almost two years. From what I understand she wasn't a planned baby. But your parents were just as thrilled about having her as they had been when they had you."

Darien swelled up angrily. "Why was I never told about her before? It's been fifteen years since the accident. Did no one stop to think that I should have been told that I had a sister in all that time?"

"Darien," Rick began cautiously. "None of us ever kept Dani a secret from you out of meanness. I don't think you fully understand how messed up you were after the accident. You couldn't remember anything, and Dani was so traumatized that she didn't speak for over a month afterward. She had lost her life as she knew it. Do you think it would have been good for her to be confronted with a brother who didn't even remember her name? No. It would have put undue stress on both of you that you didn't need at the time. You both needed stability to cope with the trauma that you had suffered. So under the advice of your doctors, we decided to keep you kids apart."

"So what happened to her, afterward?" Darien asked. "Was she adopted?"

Rick shook his head. "No. She was put into the system, the same as you. But, because of her age, she was put into foster care instead of an orphanage. And she was lucky enough to be placed with a very nice couple. They were patient and loving with her, and eventually she broke her silence and became a normal little girl again. Luckily, she was never removed from their care. Most foster children get moved around every so often, but she stayed with them until she finished high school. Then she used some of her trust fund money to get herself a small apartment closer to the university. As a matter of fact, her place isn't all that far from yours. And she attends the same college you do."

Darien thought hard about the young woman that he had seen in the graduation photo, trying to remember if he had ever seen her. He shook his head. "I've never seen her around campus that I can recall."

"I don't guess you have," Rick chuckled. "Thanks to you graduating high school early, you are already a med student while she is just a sophomore. Besides, she only takes general classes because she can't decide on a major. Her one true love is dancing, so she focuses most of her time on that."

Well that explained the tiny ballet slipper in the box, Darien thought. "So does she remember me? From what you said, I'm assuming that she didn't suffer from amnesia like I did. But she was so young at the time…"

"Oh, she definitely remembers you," Jill spoke up. "She refused to let herself forget her family. And she's caught glimpses of you over the years. Every time she does she calls me up and gushes about it for at least an hour."

Darien felt tears prickle his eyes as he thought about the sister who had remembered him all of these years, and had seen him while he had been oblivious. "Can I see her? I would really like to meet her in person."

Jill reached forward and patted his hand. "Let me make a phone call."

She stood up and walked a short distance away as she pulled a cell phone from her pocket. Darien waited with bated breath as she dialed a number.

A few moments later she grimaced. "Voicemail. At this time of day I bet she's at the dance school." Then she spoke into the phone, "Hey, Dani. It's Aunt Jill. Give me a call when you get this message, sweetie. I have something I need to talk to you about."

She disconnected the call. "Now we wait for her."

Darien jumped as his own cell phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and glanced at the screen, which showed Serena's number, before answering it hastily. "Hello."

"Hey honey," her cheerful voice came over the line. "I just wanted to make sure that you woke up from your nap. You did still want to go have dinner, didn't you?"

He checked the time and bit back a curse when he saw that he had spent a lot longer talking to Rick and Jill than he'd thought. On one hand he wanted to sit here and wait for Dani's return call. On the other hand he didn't want to disappoint Serena either.

"Uh, yeah. Sure. Dinner sounds great. Just give me about a half hour or so." He'd have to book it to make it back to his apartment, change, and get to her house in that time. But it could be done.

"Great! See you then. I'll be waiting for you," she told him. Then she hung up.

He jumped to his feet, feeling torn.

Rick laughed. "Don't keep the beautiful lady waiting. You go ahead and enjoy your dinner. We'll let you know if we hear from your sister."

Those words sent a shiver of happiness through him…_his sister_.

He had a sister!

* * *

**A/N **So Darien now knows that he has a sister, and he hopes to meet her soon. Talk about a birthday gift, huh? And don't forget about Serena's missing brother. We'll be getting to him eventually too. The plot will soon thicken, but I don't want to give too much away. So I hoped you liked this. Please, feel free to drop me a review and tell me what you thought. I always get a kick out of reading your reactions and responses. Anyway, now that my break is over, it's back to work. I am almost back on track with updating my stories, and I'm loving it. Later gators! Lots of love and hugs!

~Sere~


	3. Reconnected

**A/N **Yay! Update time! I want to say thank you to everyone who has read, favorited, and followed this story so far. It is just an idea that popped up in my head and wouldn't leave, so I had to write it down. It's been a nice distraction for when I get frustrated with my other projects. Also, tons of thank yous and hugs to all of the wonderful reviews I've gotten. You guys are the best! I'm glad my sometimes insane ramblings can keep you entertained. So these hugs are for you. _**{BIG HUGS!}**_

And now, I give you chapter 3.

_**ENJOY!**_

* * *

A Star-Crossed Love

Chapter 3

Reconnected

* * *

"Can I get you two anything else?"

Serena looked up at the waiter that was standing next to the table. "No. I'm good." Then she looked at the man across the table from her, who was staring absently out the window beside them and hadn't even noticed the man's approach or heard his question.

"Darien," she said softly, poking his hand that was on the table with a finger to get his attention. It didn't work. "Darien," she tried again a bit louder. Still nothing.

Irritation bubbled through her, and she kicked him in the shin under the table. She didn't kick hard, but she made sure to put enough force behind it that there was no way that he could ignore it.

He jumped in his seat. "Ow! What was that for?"

She gave him a pointed look and then cut her eyes to the amused waiter standing beside them.

The college-aged man bit back a grin. "I was just asking if there was anything else I could get for you two this evening."

Darien blinked like he was waking from a dream. "Um…no. I'm fine. Did you want anything else, Serena?"

She glared at him across the table. "I already told him that I was fine. You would have known that if you had bothered with paying attention."

He flushed guiltily. "I think we're ready for the check."

The waiter set a small, black leather folder on the end of the table, but Darien had already reached into his wallet for his credit card. He glanced at the bill quickly and handed them both to the man.

"I'll be right back with your receipt," he said as he scurried away.

Darien sighed and turned his attention on the fuming woman who was making a production out of not looking at him. "Look, Serena, I'm sorry. I know you're mad at me."

Her cool blue irises slid to the corners of her eyes to spear him like ice. Then she sniffed. "What do I have to be mad about? I adore being taken out to dinner by my fiancé and then being ignored by said fiancé for almost the entire meal. I've never been happier in my life."

Ouch! That had hurt. And he knew that he deserved it. He had been preoccupied by everything that he had learned earlier, and as a result, he hadn't been as attentive to Serena as he normally was. But her frosty demeanor lit a spark of anger in him.

"Sarcasm doesn't suit you, Serena," he replied, a bit coldly himself.

She turned to look at him fully, one golden brow arched in a sardonic expression. "So you're the only one who gets to be sarcastic in this relationship? I'm sorry, I must have missed that memo."

"What is wrong with you?" he hissed, looking around to make sure no one was watching their little showdown. He was a private person by nature, and he hated to draw attention. "I get that you're mad, okay. I get it. And it's all my fault. Still, you don't have to act like such a…"

"A what?" she asked when his voice trailed off. "A bitch?"

He ran a hand through his hair. "This isn't your normal behavior, Serena."

Her cheeks flared red with anger. "So I'm supposed to be all smiles and giggles all the time? I'm just supposed to sit here like a good little girl while you mope? I can tell that you have something heavy on your mind. You have ever since you went to the cemetery earlier. And it hurts that you won't open up to me about it. I thought we told each other everything."

He sighed. "We do, Sere. But this…it's complicated."

She arched her brow again. "Complicated? It's complicated? After everything that we've been through in the past few years, and our past lives, that's the best excuse you can come up with?"

"I don't even know how to explain it to myself!" he exclaimed, voice growing a bit louder.

Serena's expression softened then, and reached across the table for his hand. "Just say whatever you're thinking, even if it doesn't make sense. I bet you would feel better if you let it out. And maybe between the two of us we can try to figure it out."

He looked up into her caring blue eyes and gave her hand a squeeze. "You are always so understanding."

She gave him a cheeky grin. "Don't sound too sentimental. I was about three seconds away from stomping out of here in a high temper."

He chuckled. "That wouldn't have been very princess-like."

She snorted. "Like anyone would mistake me for a princess anyway. Maybe I was one, once upon a time, but I am a modern, freethinking woman now. And you are just trying to change the subject in hopes that I'll forget about whatever is bothering you. So fess up, Rose-Boy. What's on your mind?"

He grimaced. "You know me too well, woman. Okay, I'll tell you, but not here. I'd rather be somewhere private."

The waiter returned with the credit card and the receipt, and Darien quickly added a generous tip and scribbled his name before taking Serena's hand and leading her from the restaurant.

"So where to?" she asked as they stepped out into the warm, late summer evening. "We shouldn't go too far. We are expected at the arcade in about an hour or so."

He looked around, and then began tugging her across the street. "When all else fails, we head to the park."

She giggled. "Our old faithful standby. How many dates do you think we've had here over the past four years?"

He shrugged. "More than I can count. The bigger question is how many battles do you think we've had here?"

She shivered. "It feels like thousands sometimes. Our enemies could be sadly predictable at times. The girls and I used to say the park gave us home field advantage since we got to know it so well from all of our fights. I think we all have a perfect map of this place permanently embedded in our brains. But we shouldn't talk about that. It may jinx us."

Darien wrapped an arm around her waist as he guided her down a path. "Aw, don't think like that. Everything has been quiet for almost two years. The only thing we have to do now is live our lives and wait to see exactly what the future brings."

"Like we don't already know some of that," Serena snickered. "And don't think I haven't noticed that you're trying to steer me off subject again."

He tapped her on the tip of her nose. "Not this time. Just be patient for a few more minutes. I want to get away from the crowds before we start talking."

Serena looked around. The park was crowded, but that wasn't surprising since it was a beautiful evening. But most of the people seemed to be congregating around the lake in the center. And when Darien led her into the semi-hidden rose garden a few minutes later, they found they had the place to themselves.

She took a seat on one of the benches, and then watched as he began to start nervously pacing. Finally, she grabbed his hand as he passed by her and pulled him to a stop. "So what is all of this about? Did you get another offer to study abroad?"

That was the first thing that popped into her head. Darien's first shot at attending school overseas had been ruined by Galaxia two years before. But not long after his star seed had been recovered he had been given another chance and had spent two semesters studying at an American University. It had been a bit lonely for both of them, but they had stayed in touch through phone calls, e-mails, and video chats.

Darien shook his head. "No! Well…yeah, I have had a couple of offers, but they're nothing that I'm interested in. What I have on my mind is definitely more of a personal nature."

Serena's expression turned mildly apprehensive. "Okay. I'm all ears. Just please tell me you aren't about to have one of your stupidly chivalrous moments where you do something crazy like break up with me because a nightmare told you it would save my life."

He winced at that memory as dropped to his haunches in front of her and took both of her hands in his. "No. It's nothing like that. It doesn't even have anything to do with our relationship. Not directly, at least. It is a hugely life altering event though, so it's only natural that it could possibly have some impact on us. In fact, I'm almost positive that it will. I just never, in my wildest dreams could have imagined that…"

"Sweetie," Serena said softly as she moved her hands from his to cup his face. "No offense, but you're beginning to babble and it's starting to worry me. That's usually my forte, not yours. Now, just tell me exactly what is going on."

He sucked in a deep breath, and then blurted out, "I have a sister!"

She froze, staring at him blankly for a moment. "What?"

He chuckled nervously. "Yeah. That was kind of my reaction too."

Then he moved up to sit next to her on the bench and told her everything about the day's events; what happened at the cemetery, getting the envelope, his later dream about his family, what had been inside the envelope, and his conversation with Rick and Jill.

"That's just…wow!" Serena murmured when he finished. "I can't believe that in all this time you never knew. It's amazing of course. So do you think you'll meet her soon?"

Darien grinned. "I sure hope so! Jill left a message for her, so I'm just waiting to hear what happens next."

As if it had been planned, his cell phone chose that moment to ring. He pulled it out and felt his hands grow shaky in excitement when he saw Rick's name on the screen. He answered immediately. "Hello."

Rick's warm laugh came over the line. "Darien, how would you like to meet your sister tonight?"

* * *

Dani tore around the tiny bedroom of her small apartment, grabbing clothes at random from her closet and dresser drawers as she ranted, "I'm not ready for this! I thought I would be, but I'm not. What on Earth am I supposed to say to the brother I haven't spoken to in fifteen years?"

Jill looked up calmly from her seat on the double bed that took up most of the room. "You could start off with a simple _hello_, and then maybe follow it up with a _Happy Birthday_."

Dani rolled her dark blue eyes at her. "It's not funny, Aunt Jill! I am seriously out of my element here. In fact, I'm starting to feel sick. I think I'm going to go throw up."

Jill stood and wrapped the younger woman in her arms before she could bolt. "It's just nerves, honey. And I know that you know how to handle those. I've seen you overcome them to go out onstage and dance in front of hundreds of people."

"This is different," Dani insisted. "The last time I spoke to Darien we were just little kids. Now he doesn't even remember me. And even if he did, I don't think our old debates about _My Little Pony _vs. _Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles _would exactly fit in at our ages."

Jill shook her head. "So you two don't know the people that you've grown to be. It's not that big of a deal. You talk to him and get to know each other, just like you would with any potential new friend you meet. You tell each other about your lives, your hobbies, and what you like. Before you know it, I bet you'll be as thick as thieves, just the way you were when you were younger."

Dani smirked. "We used to bicker a lot."

"That's just the nature of siblings," Jill quipped as she ruffled Dani's bangs fondly. "They may squabble over things sometimes, but there is a bond between them. Granted, I didn't spend much time around you two before your parents died, but you and Darien seemed very close to me. He was extremely attentive and fiercely protective of you. I'm sure that you two will get some of that relationship back in time."

"Just what I need, another overprotective male in my life," Dani groaned, but it turned into a giggle. "Papa-Phil and Uncle Rick are already bad enough. Now I'm going to add Darien into the mix? I may as well reconcile myself to living out my life as an old maid. I've always had a hard time landing dates before, but now I can probably kiss even the slim chance of that good-bye. Do you know I haven't been out with a guy in four months? Not that I'm really complaining, because I don't have the time to try and build a relationship, but dinner and a movie with a man is nice every now and then."

Jill smiled knowingly. "You shouldn't work so hard and leave a little time for fun. I was the same way when I was your age. I was always focused on everything else. First it was nursing school so that I could get a job to make enough money to move out of my mother's place and get away from her endless string of boyfriends. After that I kept myself so busy with working and med school that I had no time for a social life. Before I knew it, my twenties were almost gone and my youth with it. While other people my age had stories of clubbing and hot sexual encounters, I had nothing but memories of long hours of work and studying."

Dani grinned. "But if you had been a party girl, you might not have met Uncle Rick."

Jill's eyes softened at the thought of her husband. "That's true. Heaven knows that man has been my rock even though I made him wait for years before I committed to a relationship with him. I was always surprised that he kept hanging around, and it worked out for us in the end. My point is that I don't regret working as hard as I did when I was young, but I sometimes wish that I had taken a few hours here and there to have a bit of fun. So enjoy yourself while you're young, Dani. Who knows, you just might get lucky and find your Prince Charming early on. And if you do, I suggest you grab him up as quickly as possible."

"Hmph! My Prince Charming, huh?" Dani murmured as she moved back toward her closet to hang a few items back up. Her eyes glanced out the window to look at the sky. It wasn't quite fully dark yet, but the moon was already visible, hanging just over the city skyline. Just like it had done all of her life, her gaze zeroed in on it immediately.

As always, an unexplainable feeling of longing welled up inside of her. But just as quickly it was chased away by a swell of contentment. The moon had always had that effect on her, and she sighed as calmness crept over her, loosening her tense muscles and clearing her mind.

"Knock, knock," Rick announced as he appeared at the open doorway. "Aren't you ready to go yet? You've been in here close to thirty minutes."

Dani laughed as she reached for the clothes she wanted. "Just give me a few more minutes and I'll be ready."

Rick crossed his arms and said gruffly. "Well good, because this evening's not getting any younger, and I'm ready to get this show on the road."

* * *

"I still can't get over this," Raye whispered as she leaned across the table to speak to the three other girls that were sitting in the arcade booth with her. "I mean, we've all known Darien for four years, and I never once pictured him having any family."

"Let alone being someone's big brother," Lita snorted. "Don't get me wrong. He's a great guy and all, and he's really come around the past few years, but he can still put off the long-suffering loner vibe from time to time."

"Well, you do have to remember his amnesia. He couldn't remember that he had a younger sister," Amy spoke up supportively.

Mina blew out a sigh. "I don't see why some of you are having such a hard time taking this in. I think Darien has always had a natural brotherly instinct. He's proven that many times over the years by looking out for all of us and even saving our butts on many occasions. In a way, he's been a brother to all of us."

The silence at the table was broken by three audible thumps as jaws dropped to the tabletop.

"Has Artemis been sneaking something into your morning orange juice?" Lita finally asked after spending a full minute staring at Mina like she had suddenly stripped naked and started dancing on the table.

Mina's face scrunched up in confusion. "No. Why?"

"Because that is probably the most rational thing you've ever said," Raye snickered.

Mina stuck her tongue out at her. "Now you're just being mean!"

"Hey, hey!" Serena trilled as she whirled up beside their booth. "There will be none of anyone being mean tonight. This is a happy occasion!"

Raye was quick to jump on her new target. "So you finally managed to peel yourself away from the birthday boy for a few minutes? I'm impressed."

Serena stuck her nose up in the air, as if she was still the princess she had been a millennium before. "Is that a note of jealousy I hear in your voice, Mars? I'm surprised that you didn't drag Chad here with you tonight. Are you two on the outs again?"

"We're not dating!" Raye grumbled.

Lita snorted. "So what do you call all of those times that the two of you have gone to dinner or to a movie? Sounds like dating to me."

"Look who's talking," Mina cooed. "You and Ken have been spending a lot of time together lately, Lita. But you continue to insist that you are still just friends."

The auburn haired girl flushed. "At least I don't spend all my time playing the field like you do, Aphrodite. How many different guys have you dated in the past month?"

The love goddess was unruffled by the comment. "I'm just exploring my options."

Amy, who up until then had been quiet, giggled. "Especially since Andrew made it clear that he only thought of you as a little sister."

Mina tossed her blonde head. "It's his loss. So, Amy, how is Greg doing these days?"

The blue haired girl blushed and stammered, "He's fine. We're meeting up tomorrow to go see the new exhibit that opened at the museum."

Raye slapped a hand on the tabletop. "Okay! So we're all beating around the bush with relationships that really aren't relationships. Big deal! The important thing is how are you handling Darien's big revelation that he has a sister, Serena?"

Serena shrugged. "I'm getting over the initial shock. I think what surprised me more than anything was the fact that my parents and Andrew's already knew the big secret and nobody ever let anything slip."

Lita took a sip of her soda before she sat back in her seat with her hands behind her head. "It really isn't that surprising. Your parents have been friends with all of the Furuhatas for a long time, and adults talk."

Serena shrugged. "That's true. Heaven knows mom, Kathy, and Jill are like a flock of gossiping hens when they are together."

"Like we have any room to talk," Mina snickered.

Amy looked up with questioning blue eyes. "But are you really okay with the fact that Darien has a sister, Serena?"

Serena looked across the arcade, where the deep blue eyes of her fiancé caught her gaze, and they shared a smile. "Girls, I'm happy if he's happy."

* * *

Andrew set a soda in front of his best friend at the arcade counter with a grin. "I would have put a shot of something a little stronger in there, but I didn't have the balls to bring my bottle of rum down from my apartment. Sometimes I swear my mom has the nose of a bloodhound, and she would smell it in a heartbeat if I tried to spike your drink."

Darien chuckled as he took a sip of his plain soda. "That's okay. We'll save the real partying for later. Besides, with the way my nerves are right now, alcohol is probably the last thing I need."

Andrew wiped at the already spotless counter with a towel. "So, I guess I should be welcoming you into the big brother club. I hope it goes easier for you than it has for me. Lizzy is my sister, and I love her to death, but sometimes I would love to strangle her. The main reason why I moved into the apartment upstairs was so that I could get away from her. Little sisters can be annoying as hell at times."

"I doubt I'll have to worry about that," Darien told him. "Dani and I may be brother and sister, but we're strangers to each other. Besides, she has her place and I have mine, so we won't be right up under each other all the time. I just want to get to know her. She's the only blood relative I have."

"That's cool," Andrew replied. Then he looked around at the arcade full of friends and family. "I'm just glad that my grandmother didn't come tonight. That woman has been driving me batty ever since Rita and I broke up wanting to know when I was going to go out and find a new girlfriend. She's not happy unless everybody is in a relationship."

"It has been a while since you two broke up," Darien commented.

"It's only been a year," Andrew replied back. Then he shrugged. "Besides, I don't think I have what it takes to get on in the dating world anymore."

"Yeah right!" Darien snorted. "This coming from the guy that had every girl in school panting after him when we were in high school."

Andrew grinned ruefully. "Things were different back then. And I only had half of the girls after me. The other half were chasing you. Not that you ever noticed. My point is that things have changed. Girls expect more than just going out for pizza and a game of miniature golf nowadays."

Darien arched a brow. "Really? That kind of plan always works on Serena. As a matter of fact, we just did that exact thing last week."

Andrew rolled his eyes. "That's because you two have been together for what feels like forever. Not to mention that Serena is probably one of the most easy going people I've ever known. It's the little things that make her happy. A lot of girls don't think the same way she does."

"How do you know? Have you asked out any girls lately?" Darien asked.

Andrew grimaced. "Yeah, I asked out a couple, and it did not go well. The first girl almost slapped me before she screamed at me that she already had a boyfriend. Like I was supposed to know. And the second one told me point blank that guys didn't do anything for her."

"Ouch!" Darien winced in sympathy. "But you can't form your opinion from just asking out two girls."

"Well, there was a third," Andrew stated hesitantly. "But I messed that up before I even had a chance to ask her."

Darien perked up with interest. "Ooh! I sense a story here."

Andrew snickered. "And you accuse me of being a gossip. It's not that big of a deal. She was just a girl that I'd seen a few times last semester at that smoothie shop over near campus. I had to go to the university the other day to fix a problem with my schedule for this next semester. I'd overslept and was running behind, so I decided to pop into that shop for a quick pick me up. I was in a hurry and not paying attention, and I bumped into someone as I was running out the door. My drink went everywhere and I got mad and started yelling before I realized that I had bumped into that girl I'd seen before. It was the first time that I had seen her up close. And let me tell you, she is a knock out. So once I got my head back on straight, I started to apologize. I thought I might ask her to dinner or something to make up for yelling at her. But before I could get a word out she called me an asshole and stomped off. So that's another one that got away."

Darien sighed in sympathy. "Well keep looking, man. The right one will come along eventually."

"If I don't keep screwing up," Andrew groaned. Then he perked up. "But we're not here to commiserate over my nonexistent social life. This is supposed to be a party for you."

"Don't remind me," Darien moaned. "I still can't believe that even Serena's parents are here. It kind of puts a damper on any kind of partying spirit I might have to be on my guard constantly to make sure I don't do anything to set her dad off. He may have agreed to me asking to marry Serena, but he still watches my every move when he's around."

Andrew laughed. "I'm not surprised. He's always been like a rabid dog when it comes to Serena. I'll never forget this one time, right after I got my car, I gave Serena a ride home because it had started raining and I didn't want her walking. Ken hadn't seen the car yet, so he didn't know it was me. All he saw was his daughter getting out of a boy's car. He came screaming out of the house, waving a baseball bat around like a madman. He finally calmed down when he found out I was the one driving. But it was definitely something to see."

"I bet it was," Darien mumbled wryly as he remembered a few instances over the years when he'd thought that Ken Tsukino was going to try to kill him. Thank god his wife held some sway over him and was usually able to calm him down before there was any bloodshed.

Just then, something moved in the corner of his eye and he looked toward one of the large windows that were at the front of the arcade. He looked, and saw Rick outside waving to get his attention.

"Rick's here," he said quietly to Andrew.

His friend nodded. "You go ahead and slip out. Nobody is paying us much attention at the moment. They're all too busy talking. Go meet your sister."

Darien nodded and slid from his stool, sending a mental message to Serena as he did. She met up with him just as he reached the door.

"Are you sure you want me to go with you?" she asked him hesitantly. "I know you don't like an audience. So if you want me to stay behind…"

He reached for her hand and squeezed it. "We face things together. And I want…no, I _need _you with me. You are an important part of my life, Serena. And I wouldn't dream of going through something so life altering without you."

She squeezed his hand back and smiled. "Okay. I'm ready when you are."

Together they stepped through the door.

"Hey guys," Rick greeted them cheerfully. "I parked over in the side lot, and Dani is waiting by the truck with Jill. We figured that you'd both want a little bit of privacy for this reunion."

Darien nodded. "Thanks, Rick."

Rick waved a hand. "It's no problem. Just be glad that we finally got here. I swear Dani changed clothes five times before I finally threatened to drag her bodily from her apartment. Just be gentle with her, Dare. She's understandably nervous about this meeting."

Darien thought back to the emotional scene he had witnessed at the cemetery earlier in the day. "I understand. I'm pretty rattled myself."

He and Serena followed Rick around the corner of the building where there was additional parking for arcade patrons. Since the arcade was closed for business it was mostly empty. But that just made it easier to spot Rick's black, four-door pick-up and the figure that was pacing beside it.

Jill had been leaning against the fender, but she straightened up as they came into view.

"Dani," her gentle voice said softly. "I think there is someone here to see you."

Dani froze with her back toward Darien for about ten seconds before she finally turned around. Her heart was thundering in her chest as she looked up into the eyes of her brother, meeting them head on for the first time in fifteen years.

"Darien…" she barely whispered.

Darien had ground to a halt, his fingers clenching almost painfully around Serena's as he got his first real look at his sister under the streetlight that shone across the parking lot. She resembled their mother a lot with her long, wavy, mahogany hair; but they had both inherited their father's eyes. And as the identical sets of sapphire blue met each other they felt an instant connection.

He let go of Serena's hand and took a few steps forward. He felt a battering at his brain, like his memories were fighting to break free. But they stayed firmly locked behind the wall that had been over his mind since the night of the accident. Still, he felt a pull toward this girl who was his sister.

"Dani," he replied in a voice that was just as quiet as the one that she had used.

She swiped at her cheeks almost angrily. "I told myself that I wasn't going to cry. But damn it…this is too much! I feel like I'm four years old all over again!"

Darien couldn't say the same, but that didn't stop him from closing in the last few feet that separated them. His own eyes prickled almost painfully as he forced out a chuckle. "I don't think anyone could blame you for crying. Not in a situation like this."

She laughed shakily. "I guess not. But this is one of those things that you usually only hear about on Oprah or in a movie on the Lifetime Channel. I just can't believe that you're standing here in front of me after all this time. I've been dreaming of this for years."

Rick cleared his throat. "Why don't the rest of us head inside to the party and leave you two to catch up for a few minutes."

Dani looked at him in surprise. "Oh! But…"

Darien huffed a laugh. "I don't bite."

She rolled her eyes at him. "I wasn't thinking that, Darien. It's just that this is your birthday, and I don't want you to miss your party with your friends because of me. We can talk some other time."

Serena stepped closer to the reunited siblings with her ever-friendly smile on her face. "I think the party can spare the guest of honor for a while. Besides, Darien will be the first one to tell you that he wasn't too keen about having this party in the first place."

He nodded emphatically. "This is true."

Dani looked over the newcomer for a moment, and then broke into a grin. "You're Serena, aren't you? I've only ever seen you at a distance, but I recognize your blonde hair."

"Yes, I am," Serena told her, and then held her hand out. "I'm Serena Tsukino. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Dani shook the offered hand. "Danielle Shields, but I guess you already knew that. Please, call me Dani. And I'm thrilled to meet you. I hope we can get to know each other better in the future. I'm interested in hearing how you put up with this brother of mine. Unless he has gone through a radical personality change in the past fifteen years, then I know he can be a bit of a pain sometimes."

"He has his moments," Serena giggled.

Darien sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Um, you two do realize that I am standing right here and can hear everything you're saying."

Both girls blinked at him and then shrugged. "So?"

Serena shook her head and then stood on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. "Oh, don't turn into a grumpy bear on me. I'm going to go back inside now, and I'll hold back all the curiosity seekers for a while." Then she followed Rick and Jill into the arcade.

"She's sweet," Dani told her brother sincerely.

Darien grinned goofily. "Yeah. She's one of the best things that ever happened to me. I probably would have studied myself into an early grave by now if wasn't for her making me take time off to have fun every now and then."

He let the tailgate of Rick's truck down and sat on it, patting the spot next to him to tell his sister to join him. "So what about you? Are there any guys in your life?"

Dani snorted as she hopped up next to him. "Not exactly. I have a few guy friends that I've made over the years, but there is absolutely zero romance in my life. Most of the men in my life are purely professional relationships."

"Rick and Jill said that you are a dancer," he prodded, fishing for more information.

She laughed. "Those two! They always make it sound like I'm headed for Broadway or something. I do spend a lot of time dancing, but I'm far from being a pro. I do a few bits from time to time at the community theater and I'm working as an assistant to my dance instructor. That's all. It's hardly a glamorous lifestyle. I guess you don't remember, but I've been dancing since I could practically walk. Daddy used to call me his prima ballerina. And mom used to say that you were a walking encyclopedia. You always had an answer for everything. And if you didn't, you would go and find one."

Darien's expression turned pensive. "I wish I could remember those times. It's a real pain sometimes, not being able to remember where you came from."

"It's okay, Darien," Dani said softly, a bit upset that she had made him sad. She boldly took his hand in hers and squeezed it gently before leaning her head against his shoulder. "Now that we are together again, I'll tell you everything that I can remember. It's not a whole lot since I was so young. But I'll share it all with you."

He looked down at her dark hair that glimmered warmly under the glow of the streetlight, and then nudged her companionably with his shoulder. She was a virtual stranger to him, but he felt an irresistible pull tugging inside of him that drew him to her. It was a lot like he had felt when he first met Serena, except in a completely platonic way. He had been afraid that this meeting would be awkward, but he felt completely at ease with Dani. It was if something deep inside of him recognized her and knew that she was supposed to be in his life, and it was very comforting.

He leaned his cheek against the top of her head and told her, "I'd like to hear everything you have to say, Dani. I'd like that a lot."

* * *

"How did it go?" Andy Furuhata asked as his brother and sister-in-law slid into the large, circular booth at the back of the arcade that already held him, his wife, and their friends, the Tsukinos.

Rick shrugged. "Okay, I guess. They seemed to take to each other right away. We left them alone so they could have a few minutes to talk."

"That sounds promising," Ilene replied as she took a sip of tea.

Kathy Furuhata sniffed disdainfully. "I always thought that they should have been reunited years ago. Was it really the right thing to do to keep them apart like that?"

Jill shook her head. "It's hard to say. But I think it may have been for the best. Both of those kids were emotionally scarred in different ways after the accident. They needed time to come to terms with what had happened in their lives and move on. Darien closed himself off from most people and Dani was drifting in her own silent world. Once they started recovering it didn't seem right to upset the balance. But they're both grown now, and I think they can handle it. I just hope that Darien can convince Dani to come in. She can be a bit shy at times, and she didn't want to feel like she was crashing his party."

"Oh, I hope so!" Kathy squealed. "I haven't seen that girl since she was about three years old because someone," her eyes narrowed on her brother-in-law, "decided to keep her away from us."

Rick held up his hands. "Not the glare of death! Look, you know why I decided to keep her away for the most part. She had a foster family that cared deeply for her while Darien ended up in the orphanage. Since he and Drew are so close together in age I figured that he would benefit most from having Drew as a friend. So I made the choice to keep Dani away to cut down on the chances of running into any potentially awkward situations."

Andy sat back in his seat with a huff. "Well, whatever happens, I hope Darien gets back in here soon so he can get the cake and gifts out of the way. After that we can get out of here and leave the young ones to their partying. I've been up since 4:00 this morning and would like to get home in time to watch the evening news and go to bed."

Ken Tsukino glowered darkly. "I don't know about leaving Serena here. I may have given my permission for Darien to marry her, but that doesn't exactly mean that I trust him. I was a young man once myself, and I know how they think. What if the party turns wild later? I just don't want my daughter taken advantage of."

Ilene smacked him on the back of the head. "Oh, give it a rest, dear. You forget sometimes that Serena is a grown woman now and can make her own decisions. Besides, she and Darien have been together for a long time now, and I trust him to treat her respectfully."

Ken grumbled under his breath, but didn't say any more on the subject. He knew better than to, or he would find himself sleeping on the sofa that night.

* * *

"So what did you really think of her?" Mina asked Serena.

The five girls had been gathered together in one of the booths for the last several minutes, four of them listening as Serena recounted her brief encounter with Darien's sister.

Serena shrugged. "She seemed friendly. I really wasn't around her long enough to form a concrete opinion about her. But I did talk to her for a minute, and she appeared to be very nice."

Raye snorted into her soda. "Friendly and nice? She sounds like Darien's polar opposite to me. Maybe there was a genetic goof up somewhere."

"Darien's nice!" Serena argued.

"It think what Raye means," Lita interjected before a squabble could break out. "Is that Darien has a tendency to act a bit stiff and cold around people he doesn't know. I can sympathize with him though. I'm the same way sometimes."

"No! You? No way!" Mina gasped in mock surprise.

Lita picked up a potato chip out of the bowl sitting on the table and pitched it at the giggling blonde.

"Hey! No throwing food over here! I'm the one that has to clean this place you know," Andrew growled as he walked up to the table. He was trying to look aggravated, but a smile twitched the corners of his lips.

Serena batted her eyes innocently. "And you do such a good job, Drew."

He grinned and tugged on one of her golden streamers of hair. "You're such a sweet-talker."

She squealed and snatched the strands from his fingers. "Why does everyone always do that? Do I have some sort of flashing sign above my head that says, _Pull My Hair_?"

Raye snickered. "Nope. It says, _Beware. Human Garbage Disposal Coming Through. Hide All Food_."

"You're so mean, Raye!" Serena whined.

Andrew grabbed a chair from a nearby table and pulled it to the end of the booth, turning it around backwards and straddling it. "So, Sere, how did the big meeting with Dare and his sister go? He didn't turn into Mr. Iceberg, did he? I know he can freeze people out when he gets stressed."

Serena shook her head. "He did really well actually. I was a bit shocked myself. I was kind of worried in the beginning that he would act like a jerk and run the poor girl off, but there was like an instant connection or something between them. They seemed to be hitting it off great together when I left them."

"He's coming back in though, isn't he," Andrew asked. "I didn't make that cake for him for nothing, you know."

"He'll be back," she told him. "Rick, Jill, and I just thought it would be a good idea to let him and Dani have a few minutes alone to talk and start getting to know each other. They have a lifetime to catch up on."

"True," he sighed. Then he perked up. "So what's this Dani like? Is she pretty?"

Serena rolled her eyes. "Leave it to you to let that be your first concern. But yes, I thought she was very pretty."

Andrew cracked his knuckles and grinned. "Cool! Maybe she'll come in with him and I can meet her."

"You wouldn't dare try to hit on Darien's sister right in front of him, would you?" Serena exclaimed, aghast. "I know that you've put yourself back on the dating market again and that you're looking. But Darien might strangle you if you try to move in on Dani."

"Consider it payback," Andrew drawled. "I've had to put up with years of watching Darien argue and flirt with you Serena, and I've always considered you to be like a little sister to me and stuck up for you when I thought he was being an ass toward you. Now maybe he'll get a taste of his own medicine. But then again, his sister may not even be my type."

"Oh good grief!" Serena groaned. Then she paused with her soda glass halfway to her lips as Darien's voice floated through her mind, _'Serena, can I get a bit of help, please?'_

She looked up and saw Darien standing outside the glass doors of the arcade, motioning for her to join him. She slid from her seat, murmuring, "I'll be right back," and walked quickly out of the arcade.

When she got outside she found Darien standing on the sidewalk and Dani leaning against the wall. "What's wrong?"

Darien gestured to his newfound sister. "I'm trying to convince Dani to come inside, but she's being stubborn."

Dani's head shot up and she glared at him. "I'm not being stubborn! I just don't think it's a good idea for me to go in there. This is your party with your friends and I don't want to crash it. I just thought it would be better if I left so you could get back to it. We can meet up tomorrow or something if you want to talk."

Darien glanced at Serena in exasperation. _'See what I mean? She's even more stubborn than you are.'_

'_I'm going to ignore that remark,' _Serena told him back as her eyes narrowed. _'Just watch the master at work, sweetheart!'_

In the blink of an eye, she was beside Dani and had grabbed both of her hands in hers. "You can't leave yet. You just got here. Besides, we are celebrating Darien's birthday. And since you are his sister you belong here more than anyone. I know all of our friends are dying to meet you, and I have a feeling that they are just going to love you. I bet in no time you will another member of our crazy little extended family. You're important to Darien, so that makes you important to me. I want to get to know everything about you, and I'm not ready for you to leave. The night is young, and we have tons of time to talk. So please, please, please say you'll stay for just a while longer."

Dani looked into that pair of wide, pleading blue eyes that looked as if they were only seconds away from filling with tears, and she couldn't find it in herself to say no. Her mouth opened and closed a few times before she finally found her voice and murmured, "Okay. I'll stay for little bit. Just don't throw me to the wolves."

Serena squealed happily and twirled around. "Great! Oh, this is going to be so much fun!"

Dani looked at Darien in bewilderment. "Is she always like this?"

"Always," he replied with a grin. Then he thought toward his fiancée, _'You really are slick, aren't you? You always get your way.'_

She cut him a sly look out of the corner of her eye. _'I told you I am a master. Isn't that the entire reason why you called me out here, to convince her?'_

'_Touché' _he admitted grudgingly.

Serena pulled Dani over to Darien's right side while she went to stand on his left. Then she winked at her future sister-in-law. "Okay girl! How about the two of us escort the birthday boy back to his party."

Dani giggled nervously. "If you insist."

Darien groaned. "Have I ever told you how much I hate parties, Serena?" But he had a smile on his face as he offered an arm to each of them. "Shall we, ladies."

Both girls nodded and looped an arm through his. And together the three of them walked through the door. They ignored the interested looks coming at them from the six adults in the back booth and went straight to the table where their friends were sitting.

"Hey guys!" Serena chirped happily when they got there. "I have somebody that I want you to meet. This is Darien's sister Dani. Dani, let me introduce you to Mina, Raye, Lita, and Amy." She pointed to each girl in turn.

Dani blushed shyly, but bobbed her head. "It's nice to meet all of you."

Andrew nudged Serena's leg with an elbow from where he was still sitting on the chair. He had his back to the standing trio and hadn't turned around yet. "What about me? Don't I get an introduction?"

Serena sighed, hoping this wouldn't turn out badly. "And this is Andrew. He's Darien's best friend and sort of like an adopted big brother to us girls."

Andrew stood up and turned around slowly. "It's a great pleasure to meet…" his voice broke off as he got his first look at Dani. Then he sputtered, "O-oh my god! It's you!"

A look of comprehension spread across Dani's face as she looked up into a pair of blue-green hazel eyes under a fringe of blonde hair. Then she exclaimed, "You're the asshole from the smoothie shop!"

The two of them stared at each other for several long seconds before they both yelled together, "What the hell are you doing here!"

Dani tossed her dark hair over her shoulder and sniffed. "I thought it was perfectly obvious what I'm doing here, genius! I'm here meeting my brother! Why are you here?"

Andrew's eyes narrowed. "Uh, Darien's my best friend! Besides, my family owns this place!"

Dani smacked herself on the forehead. "Andrew? Oh great! You're Rick and Jill's nephew? They always made you sound like you were so nice. But they never told me what a humongous jerk you were. Do they know that you make a habit out of going around and yelling at women after you crash into them?"

"Hold up a minute!" Darien jumped in. "Dani's the girl that you were telling me about earlier that you bumped into the other day."

"Bumped into?" Dani scoffed. "It's more like he tried to bulldoze himself right over me. He crashed into me because he was too dense to watch where he was going, and then had the nerve to yell at me like it was my fault. It wasn't my fault your drink ended up in a puddle on the sidewalk. Maybe if you learned how to open your eyes things like that wouldn't happen."

"I tried to apologize," Andrew fired back. "But you stomped off in a temper before I could. I was going to invite you to dinner to make up for it."

Dani jerked away from Darien and stepped up to Andrew so that only a few inches separated them Her dark blue eyes blazed angrily and her cheeks were flushed with temper as she poked him in the chest with a finger. "I wouldn't go out with you even if you were the last male on the face of the planet, you stupid, egotistical, overbearing ass!"

The four girls in the booth were watching the scene closely and whispering among themselves.

"Well, this is an interesting little development," Mina purred in satisfaction.

Raye nodded. "They are really going at it, aren't they?"

Lita tilted her head to the side. "Doesn't this remind any of you of how Serena and Darien used to fight before they got together?"

Amy sighed and pulled a book from her bag to hide behind, muttering, "Here we go again. Just when things were starting to get quiet around here."

* * *

**A/N **I agree with Amy, here we go again. Things are just too quiet without a bickering couple that refuses to admit that they like each other. I just had to put one in this story as well. If any of you have read some of my other stories, I'm sure you could already tell that it is one of my favorite scenarios to write. For example, all my Sere/Dare stories, the scouts and the generals, and of course my own little brainchildren, DJ and Katie. I've also admitted many times before that I adore Andrew just as much as I do Darien. That is why I always try to include him in my stories as much as possible. I've just never been much of a Rita fan though. And never fear _LP _and _GT _readers, Dani is Drew's potential love interest in this story, but Jess still holds a very special place in my heart and always will. I just wanted a different kind of woman in his life this time. Besides, I couldn't very well put Jess in this story when she belongs to a completely different storyline. It would be way too confusing. So anyway, the Shields siblings have been reunited and seem to have taken to each other with no problems. Serena, in her usual Serena-like way, has taken Dani in like a long lost friend and included her in the family. So what's next? Well, let's just say that the tale of the older, kidnapped Tsukino sibling will be coming to life soon. As always, thank you for reading. Reviews are, of course, much adored. So please feel free to tell me what you think of my ramblings. Be happy! Be safe! Lots of love and hugs!

~Sere~


	4. Building Bridges

**A/N **Sorry for such a long wait everybody. October is always a super busy month for me, and this year was no exception. I have had very little time to devote to writing, I'm sorry to say, but now that things have calmed down again I am working hard to get back on track. I hope to update _GT _in the next couple of days and _Rekindled _shortly after that. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the latest installment of this story. Tons of hugs to everyone who has reviewed so far. I wish I had the time to acknowledge each of you individually, but please be assured that I know who you are and that I adore reading each and every one of the reviews that you guys send me. If it weren't for them I would probably lose my inspiration. Anyhoo…that's enough out of me. On with the story!

_**ENJOY!**_

* * *

A Star-Crossed Love

Chapter 4

Building Bridges

* * *

"Serena, pay attention," Darien admonished gently as he tapped the tip of his fiancée's nose with a pencil. "I'm trying to explain this where you can understand it, but you're never going to get it if you keep staring off into space."

Serena sighed and reluctantly pulled herself from her daydream of wedding bells, a white dress, and red roses. She grinned sheepishly at him across the table. "Sorry, honey. I guess my mind wondered away from me."

"Well try to focus," he told her, trying to sound as stern as possible. "If I'm just going to be wasting my breath then I might as well go back to my own studying."

She glared at the large textbook on the table in front of her. "These college classes sure are a lot harder than high school."

"Only because you're letting them get to you," he told her. "You hated high school when you first started. But once you got settled in you did okay. College will be no different. Now, let's get these diagrams out of the way and then I'll treat you to a sundae."

She glared at him. "Are you trying to bribe me?"

He shrugged. "Maybe. I'm also trying to preserve our relationship. Your father has made it very clear that he will blame me for distracting you if you don't get decent marks in your classes."

"It was all his big idea anyway," she grumbled. "I wasn't even that interested in going to college. I was lucky to make through high school with the grades I did. And I wouldn't have done half as well if it hadn't been for you and Amy tutoring me every step of the way. I was just going to go and try to get a job at the mall or something, but no. Dad decides to make a huge production out of me going to college. I don't see what the big deal is."

"He's just thinking of your future," Darien told her. "He wants what's best for you."

Serena snorted. "Yeah, like I don't already know what direction my future is headed. I've already been there and seen that. But of course that opened up a brand new can of worms. Luna jumped on the band wagon and told me that she thought college was a good idea because nobody would want an uneducated queen in the future."

"Well, she does have a point," Darien agreed hesitantly.

Her blue eyes flashed at him. "I already know you think it's a good idea. The girls do to. I can appreciate Amy's input, I guess, since she's going the college route too. No surprise there. But Mina's having fun with her modeling gigs. Lita is in seventh heaven because she's getting to work and train under that famous chef at that fancy restaurant. And Raye is content to spend her days working at the shrine and flirting with Chad while she dabbles with writing music on the side. I feel like I'm the only one that is getting bullied into not being able to do what I want with my life."

"So quit," he told her as he sat back and crossed his arms. "If you hate college that much then drop out. You're right. It's not fair for you to be pushed into a life you don't want. I'm sorry for making you feel pressured about this. I was just under the impression that you were doing this so that you could become the best possible queen that you could be someday. But you're so bright and energetic that I'm sure that you will do just fine without any further education. I won't hold it against you if you want to give it up. Consider the subject closed."

Then he picked up his pen and returned to his own textbook. The pen scratched softly on the paper of his notebook as he scribbled down notes as he read the confusing medical text full of big words that Serena could never even hope to pronounce.

She sat in silence and watched him for a few moments as her mind whirled crazily. Okay, so she hadn't been too keen on the whole college idea in the beginning, but it wasn't really that bad. Sure, the work was a bit harder, but she had some great professors that she had come to like and admire. Her classes were also spaced out, giving her a freedom that she had never experienced while attending school before. It was nice to not be cooped up in classrooms all day long.

And the biggest thing of all, she had plenty of friends around. Darien was there, as well as Andrew. And though they were both quite a few years ahead of her and studying to become doctors, it was nice to know that they were close by and they seemed to constantly run into each other on campus. Lizzy, Andrew's sister, was a freshman like her, and they had a few classes together, which was nice. And Dani was only a year ahead of her, so they often met up between classes.

Several weeks had passed since Dani had entered their lives, and she had slid into place like she had been a member of their crazy family all along. She and Darien had spent many hours talking and pouring over old photos of their family when they were kids. The younger Shields sibling had racked her brain for every possible moment she could think of from those times and had shared them with her brother.

And it had brought about a change in Darien. He had always been laid back and easy going when he was with Serena since they had gotten together, especially when they were alone. The same was also true when he was around Andrew. The two of them were the only ones that he ever felt comfortable enough around to completely relax. He had never been cold or distant with the scouts or other members of their extended family, but there had always been a slight wall that he had kept up around himself. But now it was gone. It was as if finding his sister had released a part of him that he'd kept locked up inside.

Serena pondered these things as she watched him study. She loved him deeply. There was no doubt about that. One day they would be married and together they would rule the world. He was handsome and intelligent. Didn't he deserve a queen who would stand at his side as an equal? And after all, she did want what was best for the planet. She wanted to be a good queen. And she knew that he was perfectly aware of that, the sneaky jerk!

"Okay. You win," she muttered. "Your reverse psychology has worked its wonders yet again."

He looked up innocently. "What do you mean?"

She nudged his leg under the table with her foot. "You know very well what I mean, Darien Shields. Now help me figure out these sentence diagrams so I don't flunk."

His smile could have melted the polar ice caps. "Of course, my princess. It would be my pleasure."

"You still owe me a sundae," she growled at him.

"Of course," he placated her as he picked up her pencil and pulled a sheet of paper between them. "This is what you do…"

A half hour later her assignment was done and tucked away in her bag. Darien had called Andrew over to their booth to order her a gigantic banana split, and she was waiting patiently on it while he finished up his notes.

She was looking around, not really paying attention to anything, when the doors slid open and someone walked in who caught her eye. She beamed a smile as she waved the girl over.

"I feel dead!" Dani groaned as she dropped into the seat next to Serena and immediately laid her head on the table. "Somebody please just shoot me now and put me out of my misery."

Darien glanced up from his book and gave his sister a once over. "You look alive to me."

She lifted her head a bit and stuck her tongue out at him. "Meanie! I came here expecting a bit of compassion, only to be turned out into the cold."

Serena nudged her gently. "Don't pay any attention to him. He's just in one of his superior modes today."

"Oh joy! I knew I should have listened to my inner instincts and just gone straight home," Dani moaned.

"Here we are! One super deluxe banana split!" Andrew announced as he arrived at the table and set the dish carrying the sinful looking concoction on it. Then he looked down at the new arrival and greeted her. "Hello, Sweetness."

Dani's lip curled back and she rolled her eyes as she grumbled, "Donkey."

Serena sputtered around the first spoon of ice cream that she had already shoved in her mouth, "Don…Donkey?"

Dani shrugged. "Aunt Jill got on to me for calling him Jackass, so I changed it. They mean the same thing anyway. On top of that, he annoys me as much as Donkey annoys Shrek."

Darien looked up with his brows raised. "Shrek?"

"Oh good grief!" Dani muttered. "Look Dare, I know you try to act like you are so much more mature than everyone else, but even you have to know who Shrek is. Those movies have made millions."

Serena swallowed another bite. "Of course he knows. I have them all on DVD and have watched them at his place."

"Are you talking about that kid's movie with the big green ogre?" Darien asked in confusion.

Dani blew out an exasperated breath. "Yes, Einstein. His sidekick was a funny, but extremely annoying talking donkey."

"You think I'm funny?" Andrew questioned her hopefully.

She ignored him and turned to Serena. "The first one was classic, but the second one is probably my favorite. I just adore Puss In Boots. Antonio Banderas's voice is just so sexy with that accent. I was also glad to see a story where Prince Charming didn't end up with the princess. He was a jerk and got what he deserved."

"Do you have something against princes?" Darien inquired, sharing a secret look with Serena. He knew at some point he was going to have to share the story of his past life with his sister. So how would she react to finding out that he was a real life reincarnated prince?

She shook her head. "No. I did my share of Disney fairytale fandom when I was younger, and the dashing princes have their part. I just hate it when fairytales are too predictable; especially if the prince is nothing more than a royal pain."

Serena giggled and pushed her sundae closer to her future sister-in-law. "Do you want some? It's really good."

Darien slapped a hand over his heart. "Do my ears deceive me? Is Serena actually offering to share her food with someone willingly?"

Serena's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Don't be a jerk!"

Dani eyed the slowly melting ice cream topped with hot fudge and whipped cream hungrily. She looked like she was about to start drooling before she shook herself and replied, "I better not. We're closing in on opening day at the theater, and if I put on so much as an ounce the director will know. I swear that woman is the devil in disguise."

"I don't think a bite or two would hurt you," Darien said with a frown as he looked her over. When he'd met Dani a little over two months before she'd had the slim, graceful build of a dancer. He, Serena, and the rest of their friends and family had gone to see her perform a small part at the local theater. But now she was working on a new project, and it seemed to be taking a toll on her. She had lost a few pounds recently and always seemed to be tired.

"Maybe you should give up this new role to someone who has more time to devote to it," he cautioned her. Then he took in what she was wearing under her calf length coat, which was nothing more than a pair of cut-off shorts over a pair of leggings and a tank top.

His temper burst. "Did you walk over here from the theater dressed like that? It's October outside, not the middle of summer! You have to be freezing!"

Dark blue eyes rolled in his direction. "It's chilly, but not that cold out, Dare. Jeez! You'd think I was a child that didn't know any better to cover up with the way you're going on. The cool air was refreshing after all the practicing I did this afternoon. So lighten up!"

"Bring her a hot cocoa and a cheeseburger with the works and a side off fries," Darien demanded of Andrew. "That should help warm and perk her up."

"Scratch that!" Dani said in an even tone that matched her brother's as Andrew turned away. "I'll have a hot green tea with lemon and a grilled chicken salad with fat free ranch dressing on the side."

"Dani," Darien growled low in his chest. "You need a little bit more sustenance than that. You've been pushing yourself with school, teaching, and working on this new show. Indulging in one good meal won't hurt you."

"You're studying to be a doctor. Shouldn't you be encouraging people to stay away from artery clogging junk foods?" When he just looked at her she sighed. "Fine, Donkey. Bring me a hot cocoa and a cheeseburger. But could I get onion rings instead of fries?"

Andrew grinned goofily. "Whatever the lady wants."

She rolled her eyes as he walked away. "Is he always so damn cheerful?"

Serena giggled. "For the most part. Drew is just one of those naturally happy people. It takes a lot to get him in a bad mood."

"But when he does you better run for cover," Darien chuckled. "I know he looks like he would never hurt a fly, but he is a black belt in two forms of martial arts, and he won't think twice about standing up to someone if they are in the wrong. He especially hates bullies. I once saw him take down three guys at once because they were harassing his sister and wouldn't leave her alone."

Serena nodded. "I know I always felt safe with him when I was growing up. I'm not trying to paint him as a saint though. He is upbeat most of the time, but he is only human and can have moody points just like everyone else."

"Trust me, I've already seen that first hand," Dani muttered as she picked up the clean spoon laying on a napkin on the table and used it to steal a bite of ice cream from Serena's dish. "I'd seen him around near the university a few times and thought he looked like a nice guy. But then we had that run in at the smoothie shop where he almost bit my head off. That little display of attitude changed my whole perspective of him."

Serena looked thoughtful as she placed a large scoop of sundae in her mouth. After a few moments she swallowed and said, "You must have just caught him at a bad time. It isn't like Drew to be nasty to people for no reason."

"It was probably Rita," Darien commented as he gathered his books and papers and slid them into his bag. "I heard she started dating someone else a few months ago. Drew hasn't really said much about it, but I think it bothers him some."

"But they've been broken up for over a year. Surely he didn't think that she would stay single forever," Serena replied.

Darien shrugged. "Like I said, we don't really talk about it. And I may be wrong about this, but I think that part of him was kind of hoping that Rita would come back to him. Of course I don't know why he would want her back anyway."

"Was it a bad break up?" Dani asked curiously.

"Bad enough," Serena growled. "Rita's not a bad person. She's just completely wrong for someone like Drew. I know people say opposites attract, Darien and I are proof enough of that, but sometimes people are just too different for things to work. Oh, they are both extremely intelligent and devoted to their education and future careers, but that's all they have in common. Drew is the type of guy that likes to go out and have fun sometimes; you know, movies, amusement parks, concerts, and stuff. Rita is just too serious to enjoy things like that. She believes that they are a waste of time and money and that energy would be put to better use studying or pursuing something more intellectual. Poor Drew spent years spending most of his weekends locked up in the library with her while the rest of us were out bowling, roller skating, and having fun."

Dani paused with another bite of stolen ice cream halfway to her mouth. "Well why did he stay with her if they were so incompatible? It sounds like he was miserable to me?"

Darien plucked up another spoon and helped himself to a bite of the sundae himself, ignoring Serena's protests. "He stayed with her because she was safe. Drew went through a rough patch the first few years of high school. Girls flocked around him like he was Mr. Popularity, and he dated some of them. But none of those relationships ever lasted long because the girls were only interested in him because he had a car and his own money from working here at the arcade. At one time he even had a teacher who came onto him pretty strong, which was creepy. Then in senior year he and Rita were made lab partners. They clicked on an intellectual level and just sort of went from there. He knew that she wasn't after him for material gain, so he stuck with her because she was safe."

"That's a really crappy basis for a relationship," Dani murmured, actually feeling sorry for the blonde man that she had been tormenting for weeks.

"Is everyone done speculating about my personal life now?" a voice growled, making her head snap up and her expression turn wary as she realized that Andrew had approached the table without them noticing.

"I…I'm sorry," she stammered as a blush burst across her face. "I wasn't trying to pry into your business. The subject just sort of popped up and I asked."

His face was shuttered, hiding his emotions, though she could see something burning in those blue-green, hazel eyes. "Yeah, well, everyone makes mistakes in life. And I made a hell of a one with Rita. Oh, by the way, here's your food."

His voice was flat and dead sounding as he placed a plate with a large cheeseburger and a mound of onion rings in front of her, along with a steaming cup of hot cocoa. Then, without another word, he turned and walked away.

Dani stared down at the food that suddenly made her feel nauseous before looking up again at Andrew's retreating back as he disappeared through the swinging kitchen door. "Damn!" she groaned as she threw herself out of the booth and took off after him.

"What was that about?" Darien asked in bewilderment.

Serena shrugged. "It's a woman thing. Dani knows that Drew is upset. She feels bad about talking about his private life behind his back, so she's going to find him and apologize in hopes of making him feel better."

"But she doesn't even like him," Darien stated.

"I think she likes him more than she even admits to herself," Serena declared. "She kind of reminds me of someone else I know. You see, there was once this guy that used to pick on me and say mean things to me all the time. I found out later that he only did that to hide his true feelings for me."

Darien tilted his head to one side. "So you're saying that Dani claims that she doesn't like Drew, but deep inside she really does."

"Now you're getting the picture." Serena grinned as she reached over and snagged an onion ring off of the abandoned plate.

"Hey! That's Dani's dinner!" Darien protested.

Serena shook her head at him. "I guess there are some things that you are still in the dark about. I don't think Dani will be back for a while. By the time she does this food will be cold and inedible. And I am not the type of person to let good food go to waste."

Darien chuckled as he watched his fiancée pull the plate toward her to join what little was left of her banana split, amazed for the umpteenth million time that such a tiny little woman was able to pack away as much food as she did.

* * *

"Andrew!" Dani called out as she pushed open the door to the Crown's kitchen. She looked around but saw no sign of him.

The short order cook looked up from where he was scrubbing the grill and then wordlessly hooked a thumb over his shoulder toward the back door.

"Thanks," Dani murmured as she made her way through the kitchen to the door.

She pushed it open and stepped out into a well lit back parking area that was set aside for the arcade's employees. There were only a couple of cars parked there tonight, so it was easy for her to see that the gleaming black Mustang that she knew belonged to Andrew was still parked in its usual spot. At least that meant that he hadn't taken off in the car. But he could have walked off, and she had no idea which direction to go to start looking for him.

Before she could make a decision, his tired sounding voice startled her. "Are you stalking me now?"

She whirled around in surprise and saw him sitting on the bottom steps of the outside stairway that led up to the second floor apartment where he lived. And he was looking at her with a highly wary look on his face.

She sighed. "No. I'm not stalking you. I just wanted to come and apologize. I had no right to be asking about your private life behind your back."

He offered her a rueful grin. "I guess I shouldn't let it bother me. My former relationship has been one of the biggest subjects of gossip for Serena and the other girls for months now."

Dani folded her arms across her chest. "I don't gossip!"

He waved a hand at her. "Sure you do. It's a trait that all women just naturally inherit. If there is something to talk about, women will do it. I don't condemn you for it. You can't help what's in your nature."

Her blue eyes blazed angrily. "I came out here trying to be nice! But if you're going to be an ass…"

Andrew leaned forward and grabbed her elbow as she started to whirl away. "No! I'm sorry. I didn't mean for it to come out sounding like that. Don't walk away mad. Please."

She paused at his heartfelt sounding words and allowed herself to be pulled down on the step next to him. After a minute of awkward silence she asked tentatively, "So did you want to talk about it? Your ex-girlfriend I mean. Sometimes it helps to get things out in the open."

He huffed a sound that almost sounded like a laugh. "There really isn't much to talk about. To be honest, Rita and I didn't really have much of a relationship. Darien was right. I stayed with Rita because she was safe. I was tired of other girls hounding me all the time, and the two of us got along fairly well, so it seemed like the logical thing to do at the time. But honestly, it was security thing between us and nothing more. I like Rita, and I respect her mind, but there was no spark. We were together for three years and never did anything except hold hands and hug on occasions. We never even kissed."

Dani jerked in surprise. "You were with the same girl for that long and never tried to kiss her? I find that hard to believe."

He shrugged. "I did once. But she turned her head when I leaned in and I ended up kissing the corner of her mouth. It didn't seem right though. It felt like I was kissing my sister or something. I never tried again after that."

"Whoa!" she breathed in response. "No offense, but that is completely whacked. I don't go out a whole lot, but I do date occasionally, and it seems like the only thing the guys have on their mind the whole time is trying to find ways to kiss me."

"I can understand that," Andrew told her as he snuck a glance at her out of the corner of his eye. Even in the harsh yellow glare of the security light that was mounted on the building, he still thought she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. But he couldn't quite bring himself to tell her that…not yet.

They had definitely gotten off on the wrong foot when they had met, and the relationship between them continued to be volatile. They saw each other almost every day now that she was active in her brother's life again, and he spent a good deal of his time flirting outrageously with her while she treated him like he had some kind of a highly contagious disease. Sure, they were carrying on a civilized conversation right now, but that could change at any moment. If he suddenly started tossing sincere compliments at her she would probably run as far and as fast as she could.

"You are so not an ass," she murmured a few seconds later.

"Hmm?" he hummed in question, sure he had misunderstood her.

She turned sideways to look directly at him. "I said that I don't think you are an ass. I did before, but I don't anymore. Not now that I've gotten to know a little bit more about you. Serena and Darien both vouched for you and said that you must have been in a bad mood over your ex-girlfriend dating again when we ran into each other that day. And while I still think it was rude of you to snap at me the way you did, I can understand it better."

Andrew blinked hard. "Oh! Well, I was in a bad mood that day, but it wasn't about Rita. I'd kept having crazy dreams the night before and had barely gotten any sleep. Then I finally dozed off for a while and ended up oversleeping, which had me running late for an appointment at school. I was grouchy, and when I ran into you I just snapped without thinking. I promise you though, I never would have said those things if I had looked up and seen that it was you first."

"Would it have really made a difference if you had?" Dani muttered as she pulled her long coat tighter around her in an attempt to ward off the early evening chill.

He took a deep breath and decided to take a leap of faith. "Sure it would have. I had seen you around a few times and thought you looked like a really nice girl. I had even gone over different plans to try and find a way to approach you and start a conversation. But after our…um, clash…I figured it was a lost cause. That's why I was so shocked when you turned out to be Darien's sister. I thought I might have a chance to make things right with you."

"And instead I have just been making things difficult," she sighed. Then she straightened up with a bright smile. "Okay, how about we start over from the beginning with a clean slate."

She held out her hand to him and stated. "Hi. My name is Dani Shields. It's nice to meet you."

He grinned and reached out to grasp her hand in his, jumping a bit when what felt like a small electrical shock surged through him. He dismissed it as static electricity as he told her, "I'm honored to make your acquaintance, Dani. I'm Drew Furuhata."

She giggled softly. "You sound just like a medieval knight or something."

He flashed her the killer smile that had always made him so popular with the girls at school and at the arcade. "If there is one thing that my dad taught me, it is that you always treat a woman with kindness and respect."

That made her laugh. "I can definitely tell that your dad and Rick are brothers. When I was little Rick always called me Princess. And he still slips up and calls me that even now. I guess he must have picked it up from my dad. That was his nickname for me."

"That's not surprising," Andrew replied fondly. "He and Jill have always taken other peoples' kids under their wing since they were unable to have any of their own. Me and Lizzy, you and Darien, and Serena and Sammy have been like surrogate children to them."

Then he sighed and mumbled softly. "Sometimes I wonder what my life would have been like if they had been the ones that adopted me."

Dani shot him a quizzical look. "Adopted you?"

He met her gaze with a questioning one of his own. "Yeah. I thought you knew since you are so close to Uncle Rick and Aunt Jill. It's not like it's really a secret or anything. It's just something that never comes up. But I am adopted."

Dani was floored. "Really? I would have never guessed that. You look enough like your parents to truly be blood related."

"It's just a crazy coincidence," he chuckled. "Mom used to tease that I inherited her eyes and dad's hair just by being around them. But I was about a year old when they got me and was already in possession of my devilish good looks."

"Devilish good looks? Puh-leeze!" she snorted, but in a teasing way. "So what about Lizzy? Is she adopted too?"

He shook his head. "That's the funny thing. My mom is a pretty severe diabetic, and she constantly battles with her blood sugar levels even with diet and medication. Doctors told her for years that the chances of her ever getting pregnant, much less carrying a baby to term, were slim to none. She and dad tried for a few years to have a baby, but nothing happened. So then they decided to adopt. Well, surprise! About a year after they adopted me mom got pregnant with Lizzy and everything worked out fine. But it's never affected the way they think of me. In their eyes I'm still just as much their child as if I had been born to them."

Dani smiled at his words. "That sounds a lot like my foster parents. They took me in and treated me as if I was their daughter from the first day. They were like that with every kid that came into their home, whether they stayed long or not. I've always counted myself lucky that I was never moved away from them."

A companionable silence fell between them for a few minutes until Dani asked quietly, "Hey, Drew? Now that we've put the past behind us, we're friends now, right?"

"Yeah, we're friends," he answered gruffly, although he was definitely interested in something more than friendship with her. But for now he would take what he could get.

"I'm glad," she murmured softly. "I mean, we are practically family in a weird kind of way, and I don't like fighting with people. We're obviously going to be involved in each other's lives for a long time, so it's for the best that we get along. Besides, I always like making new friends."

Andrew glanced over at her, frowning when he saw the way that she was shivering slightly under her coat. He stood up and offered her a hand to help her up. "Come on. My first act as your new friend is to get you inside before you turn into a popsicle on me." He debated for a moment before asking, "Would you like to come up to my place? I could whip you up something warm in a heartbeat."

To his surprise, her cheeks, which were already rosy from the chilly air, turned even pinker. "Oh, well, you've already gotten dinner for me once tonight. I'll just go back to it."

He chuckled as he looked down at his watch. "Trust me, there's none of it left if you left it on the table in front of Serena. Sometimes I think that girl could eat a whole cow on her own. Not that I really have any room to talk. My mom always swears that it's a miracle that she and dad didn't go bankrupt trying to feed me when I was growing up."

A peal of laughter left Dani. "Is that your way of saying that you have a healthy appetite?"

He shrugged. "I've been known to pack away some food in my time. That's one of the reasons I learned to cook for myself at an early age. My point is that we've been sitting out here talking for almost half an hour. Even if Darien was able to keep Serena from attacking your food, and chances of that are nearly impossible, that burger and onion rings have got to be pretty cold and disgusting by now. So let me make it up to you."

The idea of spending time alone with Andrew in his apartment made Dani feel a bit breathless, but she covered it up as she replied, "Oh, okay! I'll let you treat me this once, but only because I really don't feel like scrounging up something to eat when I get home."

She allowed him to lead her up the steps, ignoring the tingles that were racing up and down her arm from where their hands touched. When they reached the top landing and Andrew was fumbling with his keys at the door, she looked up at the sky.

"Isn't the moon pretty tonight?" she whispered.

Andrew paused and glanced up at the almost full orb. "Yeah it is. It also seems unusually bright. It's supposed to be full just in time for Halloween this weekend."

"I used to spend hours watching the moon when I was little," Dani continued in an almost trance-like tone. "For some reason it always made me feel better whenever I was sad or upset."

"Yeah, me too," Andrew said softly, getting caught up in the moment himself. Then he shook himself and asked, "Are you going to Rick and Jill's party this weekend?"

Dani jumped like she had been startled out of a dream. "Oh! Um…the Halloween party! Yes I'm going, or more like I've been ordered to attend. Jill is insisting that I put in an appearance since I have been excluded from these types of events for so long. I even borrowed a costume from a friend of mine who does wardrobe for the community theater."

"What kind of costume?" Andrew asked as he opened the door to his apartment and ushered her inside.

She shook her head. "Nope! I'm not telling. You'll just have to wait and see for yourself." Then she glanced around his apartment. "Nice. It's bigger than my place, that's for sure. And while I can tell that you're not a slob like some single guys living alone are, I like that it has a lived in feel. My brother's place is always so spotless that I'm almost afraid to touch anything."

"Darien does have a mild touch of OCD," Andrew chuckled. Then he pulled his cell phone from his pocket as it began to ring and looked at the screen. "And speak of the devil," he murmured as he answered it.

Dani wandered away as he took the phone call to look at a bookshelf that stood next to an almost ridiculously large flat screen television. The shelves held a mixed assortment of books and several trophies that had been awarded for martial arts and other sports such as track, basketball, and baseball. There were also quite a few framed pictures that held the members of the Furuhata family from many occasions over the years. Even Darien made an appearance in one of him and Andrew that looked as if it had been taken at their high school graduation.

She reached out and traced the lines of her brother's face with her finger. Darien looked happy on the surface in the photo, but she knew how to look past that to read the sadness that was in his eyes. That picture had been taken before Darien had met Serena and he had been a loner, letting no one into his life except Andrew, Rick, and Jill.

"Thank heaven for Serena. I really believe she saved my brother's life," she whispered under her breath.

"In more ways than you know," a voice said next to her ear, making her jump.

"How about a little warning next time!" she squealed as she glared at an amused looking Andrew. "You scared about ten years off my life!"

"Sorry," he apologized, trying his best to look contrite. "But I heard what you said about Serena, and I couldn't agree with you more. I would have introduced the two of them years earlier if I had known that she would have had such an impact on him."

"What did you mean by she saved Darien in more ways than I know?" Dani asked curiously.

Andrew hedged for a moment. He had been privy to the identities of Sailor Moon, Tuxedo Mask, and the other sailor scouts for years now, and he knew the secrets of their past lives and all of the life threatening battles that they had been through. He also knew that Darien had died or come close to dying on a few occasions and that Serena had fought tooth and nail to bring him back. But Dani didn't know about Darien's secret double life, and it wasn't his place to tell her.

"I just meant that she completely changed his life," he answered neutrally. "Rick introduced me to Darien not long after your parents' accident, and we've been friends ever since. But there was always a part of him that stayed closed off from the rest of the world. He wouldn't come to family parties or holiday get togethers, even though he was always invited. He held himself away from almost everyone in his cold little world…until Serena came crashing in and knocked down his walls. It was actually quite funny to see. Darien never knew what hit him."

"I wish I could have been a fly on the wall to see that. Amy and Raye were telling me that they fought like cats and dogs in the beginning," Dani giggled.

Andrew grinned in return. "They did have some heated moments, but it was only because neither one of them wanted to admit how they felt about the other. It about drove me crazy until they finally came to their senses. But it changed Darien, making an already good person even better."

She shook her head. "Speaking of my illustrious brother, what did he want on the phone?"

He actually flushed a bit. "Um…he just wanted to make sure that you were okay. He and Serena were leaving and he wanted to know if you wanted a ride. I told him that we were talking and having dinner and that I would make sure you got home all right. I hope that was okay."

She swallowed the lump that suddenly appeared in her throat and muttered, "Um…sure. That's fine with me. But don't you still have to work?"

He flashed her a smile. "Nope! My shift is over for the night. So I'm all yours."

* * *

Serena stretched, luxuriating in the feel of the black silk sheets against her bare skin. "Mmm…" she moaned lazily.

The mattress next to her dipped as Darien shifted around so that he was on his side. He propped his head up on a hand so that he could smile down at her. "Was that a sound of contentment I heard?"

She blinked her eyes open to gaze up into his. "You know it was. You don't have to sound so smug about it. Now I'm just dreading having to get up and go home. I'd rather stay here cozy with you."

He trailed his fingers down her cheek. "I wish you could too. But you promised your parents that you would obey curfew on school nights, and the last thing I want is your dad over here banging on my door with his shotgun."

"I know. I know," she groaned as she rolled over to the edge of the bed and sat up, reaching for her clothes that Darien had removed from her earlier and scurrying into the bathroom.

She turned the water in the shower on to heat and then carefully wound her hair up into a twist on top of her head before covering it with a plastic shower cap. Then she opened the glass door and stepped inside, sighing happily as the warm water cascaded over her. After a minute she reached for the loofah and body wash that she kept there for just such occasions and began lathering up.

She had her eyes closed, but she still heard the click of the shower door as it was opened and squealed, "Oh no you don't, mister! You and I both know what will happen if we are in the shower at the same time, and we don't have time for that. I'm going to be rushing to make it home by curfew as it is."

"I promise I'll behave. I just want to grab a quick shower myself," Darien wheedled in his best, innocent sounding voice.

But Serena wasn't buying it. "Like I believe that! I've fallen for it too many times. Now you just hold your horses for a minute. I'll be done soon and it will be all yours."

She finished scrubbing down her body in record time and let the water wash all the suds away. Then she left the water running and reached for a large fluffy towel to wrap around her body and stepped out to smile at her disgruntled fiancé.

"There you go," she told him sweetly as she moved to the other side of the room where she had left her clothes on the vanity.

"You are a temptress!" Darien growled, but he disappeared into the shower alone.

Serena stifled a giggle as she toweled herself off, removed the shower cap, and shimmied into her clothes. Then she returned to the adjoining bedroom where she spent a few minutes looking for one of her shoes before finding it under the bed. She was sitting on the side of the bed, tying the laces of her second shoe, when Darien strolled in wearing nothing but a pair of boxers.

He gave her an inviting look, which made her roll her eyes at him. He was chuckling and pulling on a pair of jeans as she went back into the bathroom. She stood in front of the mirror, and with quick, practiced moves, she had her hair restored to its normal style. A small application of mascara and lip-gloss returned her features to exactly the way they had looked when she had left her house earlier. She also made a quick inspection of her neck to make sure that there were no hickeys or love bites visible. Her father would have ten litters of kittens if he saw anything like that.

She had just finished her primping when Darien came into the room and picked up a comb to attempt to style his unruly hair. He gave up after a minute as it fell into its usual disarray and turned to offer his arm to Serena. "Shall we, my princess?"

She giggled and looped her arm through his. "Lead on, my prince."

He paused when they reached the living room and looked back and forth between the front door and the balcony. "So which way, the normal way, or the easy way?"

Serena chewed her bottom lip for a moment. The normal way meant by car while the easy way meant that Tuxedo Mask would carry her across the rooftops. And while the second option sounded much more appealing to her since it would give her a few extra minutes in her lover's arms, it could also pose a different set of problems.

"I don't know," she finally said. "I really want to say yeas to the easy way, but my dad has a bad habit of staking out the windows when it gets close to curfew time. If he sees us walking up instead of driving with it being so chilly out he may make an issue out of it and say that you aren't paying close enough attention to my health and comfort."

Darien's expression darkened. "I guess you have a point. So in that case, we're taking the car. I sure don't want to give your father any reason to find fault with me, especially when I have been trying so hard to stay in his good graces. Besides, taking the car is probably a good idea because I want to swing by Dani's and make sure she got home okay, and it may look suspicious if I'm not driving. That way I can just make it seem like I'm just casually swinging by on my way home."

Serena made a sound of protest as she followed him out the door. "Don't go checking up on your sister like some kind of an overprotective nut job. Drew said that he would make sure she made it home after they ate, and I'm sure he did just that. She doesn't need you hounding her."

"I'm just worried…for both of them," Darien muttered as they stepped into the elevator. "It's no secret that they don't get along. And we took off earlier and left the two of them alone together. I know Drew said they were getting along okay, but you and I both know how quickly that can change. I just want to make sure nobody got murdered."

Serena remained quiet until they'd reached the underground parking garage and had situated themselves in the front seats of Darien's red BMW. Then she spoke up. "Sweetie, please don't take what I am about to say the wrong way. I am thrilled that you have Dani in your life and someone that you can claim as your blood relative, but don't you think you're laying the big brother act on kind of thick? She's a grown woman who has been living on her own for a while now and has gotten just fine without you constantly butting into her life."

Darien shot her a startled look as he pulled the car out of the garage and onto the street. "You think I'm coming on kind of heavy?"

She held her hand up with her thumb and forefinger only an inch apart. "Maybe just a bit. I know it's only natural to feel protective of a younger sibling. I feel the same way about Sammy sometimes, even if he is a conniving little snot. But you and Dani have been apart for a long time and she's not used to having big brother watching over her. Like earlier when you fussed at her about what she was wearing and what she should eat. There was some tension between you guys for a moment and I clearly saw anger in her eyes. I just don't want things blowing up between you, especially when you are still getting to know one another."

His fingers tightened around the steering wheel for a moment before he sighed. "I guess I have been overdoing it a bit. No…I take that back. I've been treating Dani like she was Rini, and she's not a little girl. I suppose it's because we've seen so much bad stuff in the world over the years and I'm as scared that she'll get hurt as I am for you. But at least I know you have the Silver Crystal to help you if you need it. Dani has nothing. She's just a regular human girl. One of my biggest fears now is that a new enemy may come along, figure out our real identities, and then use Dani as a way to get to me."

Serena reached over and placed a hand on his leg. "Now you know the way some of the rest of us have felt for a log time. I've been afraid for my family since the first time I became Sailor Moon. My dad and Sammy were attacked by that Cardian in that virtual reality theater and my mom could have died when Tigers-Eye tried to steal her dream. Zoicite turned Raye's grandpa into a monster when he took the Rainbow Crystal from him and Chad had his pure heart stolen. Lita's friend, Ken, was almost killed because he was protecting her. And…"

"Okay. Okay. I get it," Darien cut her off. "All of our friends and families are possible liabilities, and now Dani's one too. That doesn't exactly make me feel better about not checking on her constantly."

She patted his thigh. "I know. But we'll continue to do what we've always done. We go about our daily lives normally and treat everyone as we've always done. At the same time we keep our eyes open, watch for anything unusual, and be ready to jump in if something does happen. Believe me, there are plenty of people besides yourself keeping an eye out for Dani's welfare."

"I suppose you're right," Darien replied as he pulled the car over to the curb and stopped it. "When did you get to be so smart?"

Serena looked up, surprised to see that they had already reached her house. And not a moment too soon. The clock on the dashboard told her that she had exactly three minutes until she was expected inside. She frowned when she saw the telltale twitch of the living room curtains that let her know that her father was looking out.

She smothered a growl and changed her frown to a smile as she turned in her seat to face Darien. "I've always been smart, but people rarely give me credit for it. It's getting better though. Raye actually paid me a compliment the other day when she found out I aced my History exam. Of course I didn't bother pointing out to her that History has always been one of my best subjects. Still, I thought the Earth had stopped turning for a moment."

Darien chuckled as he leaned over and undid her seatbelt before pulling her into his arms. Like Serena, he was very much aware that Ken Tsukino was keeping an eye on them from the window, but he also knew that the tint on his windows was dark enough to keep the man from actually seeing them. So he wasn't afraid as he bent his head down to kiss Serena deeply.

Her response was instantaneous. She moaned into his mouth as her lips parted so that her tongue could play with his and her arms went up around his shoulders as her fingers sank into the silky hair at the nape of his neck.

His response was just as eager as he pulled her closer against him and echoed her moan with one of his own. One hand pressed possessively against her back while the other wrapped itself in one of her soft streamers of golden hair.

All too soon they reluctantly parted and Serena bent down to pick up her bag from the floorboard. "I guess I better go before my dad decides to come out here and see what's taking me so long to get out of the car. I'm surprised that he hasn't come out on the front porch already."

Darien leaned over and pressed one last quick kiss to her pink lips. "Okay. Sweet dreams, Angel. I'll meet you at the arcade before class in the morning?"

She nodded eagerly. "I'll be there. Make sure you have something hot and caffeinated waiting for me. I have the dreaded English class first thing tomorrow. Professor James is a nice lady, but she turns into a demon if she catches anybody sleeping in her class."

Darien laughed. "I remember well. I had her freshman year too. I'll make sure to have something that will put some pep in your step. Just make sure you get up on time."

She stuck her tongue out at him. "I rarely ever oversleep anymore. Besides, Luna has gotten much more persistent with her wake up techniques over the years. I'll be there on time."

With that said, she got out of the car and hurried up the concrete walk to the front door. She was reaching into her purse for her keys when the door opened to reveal a stern looking Ken Tsukino.

"It's about time," he grumbled. "Another twenty seconds would have put you past curfew and I would have had to ground you."

Serena's mouth fell open in shock at her father's words. He couldn't ground her! Granted, she had agreed that as long as she lived under their roof that she would have to abide by her parents' rules. But she was an eighteen-year-old engaged woman for crying out loud!

She was saved from protesting as Ilene walked out of the kitchen and snapped, "Ken! You quit picking on her right this minute! I trust Darien with Serena as much as if she were here with us. Besides, you were watching them from the window and you knew that she was right outside. Now go back to the living room and watch your news."

Ken backed off under his wife's glare. "Yes, dear."

"I honestly don't know what gets into that man sometimes," Ilene muttered as she came forward to greet her daughter, wiping her hands on a dishtowel. "Well, darling, did you have a pleasant evening?"

Serena nodded. "Yeah, I did. Darien and I hung out at the Crown for a while and he helped me with my English sentence diagrams for class tomorrow."

Ilene gave her a conspiratorial look, her eyes twinkling. "That's nice, dear. Now I'm sure you're tired from all of your _studying_, so why don't you head on up to bed and get a good night's sleep."

Serena blushed madly as she scurried up the stairs. Although her mother had never said anything, she was fairly certain that the woman was aware that she and Darien had a physical relationship. And while she knew that Ilene would never say anything to Ken for fear of giving him a heart attack, there was just something creepy about the idea of her mother speculating about her sex life. It had been bad enough when she had given her _"the talk" _when she had been thirteen.

She entered the pink and white sanctuary that was her bedroom and tossed her book bag into her desk chair. Then she pulled her cell phone from her purse before flinging the tiny bag onto her dresser and checked to see if she had any messages. She'd left the phone in Darien's living room while she'd been there, so she wouldn't have heard it if anyone had called.

She didn't have any missed calls or voice mails, but she did have a few text messages. She opened her inbox to read them.

The first one was from Amy – _Did you get the English homework straightened out?_

She took a moment to dash off a return message to let her studious friend know that she was academically sound for the moment.

The next one was from Raye – _Halloween costume shopping tomorrow afternoon?_

She answered in the affirmative. Rick and Jill were hosting a big Halloween party this year, and she had yet to find a costume. She wasn't sure what she wanted to be yet, but she wanted it to be perfect.

Lita's message was next – _Raye mentioned shopping. You in?_

She sent a message to Lita that mirrored the one she sent to Raye.

Next up was Mina. And her message was by far the longest and the most rambling – _U will not believe what I saw 2night! Was coming out of the grocery store b/c Art was bugging me for some cream and saw D & D 2gether. They were really chummy if U know what I mean. There were sparks flying, and not N a bad way. _

Serena sighed, but decided to not even bother to reply to that message. As Sailor Venus, Mina had been gifted by her ancestor, Aphrodite, with the ability to be able to sense bonds between people, especially when it came to matters of the heart, and the self proclaimed love goddess had taken an extreme interest in watching Drew and Dani, or as she called them, D & D, ever since the night of Darien's birthday party. She swore that she saw some kind of a connection between the two of them, and she had been rambling about it ever since.

The last message was the newest one, and it had only been sent a half-hour before. It was from Dani and simply said – _Call me?_

Well that was interesting. True, Serena had grown close to her future sister-in-law in the short time that they had known each other, but Dani had never sent her a message like this before. It almost sounded like a cry for help.

Her curiosity piqued, she quickly washed her face, brushed her teeth and hair, and changed into her pajamas before settling down on the bed to place the requested call.

* * *

Dani washed her empty teacup in the sink of her tiny apartment and set it in the drainer before turning off the water and drying her hands on a dishtowel. Then she walked into her living room where she lounged on her overstuffed sofa and picked up the remote to flip through the television stations.

She stopped when she found a late night talk show and left it there. It was more for background noise than anything else anyway. She knew that she should probably go to bed and get some sleep since she had a busy day the next day. She didn't have any classes to attend, but she was scheduled to teach a few classes at the dance school and had another practice at the theater. But her mind was still churning over the events of the evening and refused to let her rest.

As promised, Andrew had driven her home after a dinner of grilled cheese sandwiches and soup. They had lingered at the table in his kitchen for a while, talking about their childhoods and this and that. The conversation had continued once they had gotten in his car, and when they had reached her apartment building she'd found herself not wanting to say goodbye yet. So she had invited him up to her place for a cup of tea, and he had accepted.

He'd stayed for about an hour as they'd continued talking before he'd finally left, saying that he had classes the next day. She'd walked him to the door, just like she would any guest who was visiting her, and thanked him for dinner and the ride.

He'd muttered that it was no problem and stepped through her door and out into the hall. Then he'd given her an awkward, one-armed hug and stammered "goodnight" before beating a hasty retreat toward the elevator.

His actions had left her feeling confused and wondering exactly where their relationship stood. So after debating things in her mind while she showered and put on her pajamas, she'd messaged Serena asking her to call her. Her brother's bubbly blonde fiancée had known Andrew the longest and seemed to understand him the best. Then she'd made herself a cup of herbal tea in an attempt to calm her rattled nerves. It was hard to believe she was so jumpy when she had felt like the walking dead only a few hours before.

And she literally jumped when her cell phone that was lying on her coffee table began ringing a minute later. She grabbed it up quickly and sighed in relief when she saw Serena's name on the screen.

"Hello?" she answered anxiously.

"Hey! Is everything okay?" Serena asked in a concerned tone.

"I'm fine," Dani told her as she sat up and turned off the television. "I just needed someone to talk to, and you were the first person that came to mind. I'm not bugging you too late, am I?

Serena laughed. "Not at all. I just got your message and thought I would get back to you. So what's up?"

Dani sighed. "You're not with my brother right now, are you?"

"No. He just dropped me off a few minutes ago," Serena replied.

"Good! Because I really don't want him overhearing any of this," Dani said. "He'd probably just go ballistic if he did."

Now Serena sighed. "If it makes you feel any better, I talked him out of coming by your place and checking on you. I saw the way you got upset earlier when he was fussing at you and I told him that he needed to back off a bit."

Dani giggled. "Thanks for that. Don't get me wrong. I love Darien to pieces. But he can be a little smothering sometimes. It's nice to know that he cares though."

"Of course he cares," Serena told her. "He's been so happy since he found out about you. I haven't seen him this giddy since he asked me to marry him. Even being invited to spend time at an American university didn't make him this happy. But I get the feeling that you didn't call me to talk about your brother."

Dani instantly sobered. "You're right. I wanted to talk about Andrew."

"Uh oh. What happened now?" Serena asked in concern.

"Nothing bad," Dani hastily reassured her. I'm just…confused." And then she told her everything that had happened from the time she had left her and Darien in the arcade, ending her tale with their awkward goodbye.

"Well…" Serena drawled almost ten minutes later when the other girl had finally wrapped up her story. "It sounds to me like you and Drew made some huge steps tonight in becoming really close friends. You got him to open up and talk about two subjects that he never discusses. And as far as him hugging you when he said goodbye, well, that's just the way he is. He was probably just nervous about it because you two have been on such shaky ground until tonight."

"Oh," Dani murmured. "So that was just a normal friendship thing for him." Part of her was thrilled that he seemed to be accepting her into his band of friends so readily, but another part of her felt a slight pang of disappointment that his initiation of physical touching didn't mean more.

"Yes it is," Serena answered, sounding like she was fighting to hold back giggles. "Why? Are you interested in something more with him?"

Dani felt a blush explode across her cheeks instantly. "What? No! I'm not interested in him that way! I mean, yeah, he's cute…okay; he's way beyond cute. He's completely gorgeous! But he is sooo totally not my type. Besides, he's Rick and Jill's nephew. It would be really weird if we started dating. I can't believe I'm even telling you all of this!"

This time Serena did laugh. "It's okay. I will never repeat what you have told me. So you're not interested in a relationship with him. That's fine. But I do think that the two of you can become very good friends."

Dani took a deep breath and felt herself calm down. "Yeah. I think we will too. Thanks for calling me. I feel much better now. I was afraid that I would be up half the night thinking about all of this, but I'm actually feeling tired enough to sleep now."

"No problem," Serena told her. "I'm about ready to hit the bed myself. See you tomorrow?"

"I'll be around," Dani replied. Then she said goodbye and disconnected the call.

As she got up from the sofa she felt the fatigue from her long day catch up to her in full force. She turned off the lamp on her end table and stumbled the few feet into her nearby bedroom. She didn't bother with a light since the room was flooded with silver moonlight from the curtains that she had opened earlier.

She crawled into her double bed and pulled the covers up to her chin as she curled up on her side. She felt warm and content, like she was being bathed in the pool of moonlight that covered her bed. She could see the barest edge of the moon in the corner of her window, and it made her think of a story that her mother used to read to her when she was little.

"Goodnight Moon," she whispered sleepily as her eyes flickered shut and she drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

_**(Dream Sequence)**_

Princess Serenity was bored. Usually she adored it when her mother allowed her to travel with her to visit the Earth's royal family. The palace there was so different from her own home on the moon, and she always enjoyed exploring. She also had the added advantage of being able to spend time with her beloved Endymion.

But today was turning out to be anything but enjoyable. Endymion had left out this morning to do some field training with his generals and had invited her scouts to join them. And her mother was closed up with the Earth king and queen while they discussed important diplomatic business. So that had left the young princess on her own to entertain herself.

She had tried to nap for a while, but had only managed to doze for a bit. So now she found herself wandering the halls of the palace in search for someone to talk to and break her monotony.

She approached a set of light oak double doors and knocked, clearly expecting someone to answer her summons. But after a minute it became clear that there was nobody there.

"Just my luck," she grumbled as she continued down the corridor to the grand staircase and descended to the ground floor. Once there she slipped through a glass door in one of the parlors and immediately found herself in a beautiful flower garden.

She took a deep breath, breathing in the perfume of the flowers surrounding her. The gardens here on Earth always made her feel better than the gardens on the moon. At home the flowers were mostly white or extremely pale pastels. Here they were bright, colorful, and bursting with life.

The roses had always been her favorite though, so she picked the path that would lead her to the rose garden and quickly followed it. Endymion had promised her that he would be back in time for lunch, which hopefully meant soon, and he would know where to find her. The rose garden had become something of a hideaway for the two of them when they wanted to meet alone.

The tulips, daffodils, lilies, and all of the other flowers gradually gave way to the roses as she continued on her way. They were rainbows of color nestled into their thorny branches in shades of pink, yellow, and orange, along with many others. Even the white ones, with their snowy velvet petals, were pretty. But it was the red ones that she was always drawn to. Probably because they were Endymion's favorite.

She entered the clearing in the center of the rose garden that held a fountain and a small gazebo. She spent a few minutes wandering around the fountain, admiring the way that the clear water glinted in the sunlight. But soon she became aware of the heat of the day and decided to retreat into the shade of the gazebo.

At least that was her intention until she reached the steps that led up into the gazebo. Then she heard what sounded like a moan and looked up. There was a couple almost completely concealed deep in the shadows inside the gazebo. She couldn't make out much about them, but she could definitely tell that it was a man and a woman…and they were locked in a very passionate embrace.

She felt her cheeks flood with mortification as she spun around and left the clearing as quickly and as quietly as she could. Sure, that gazebo had been the site of many romantic trysts between Endymion and herself, but she had never imagined that anyone else would have sought out that same location.

She was almost sprinting down the path, wanting to put as much distance between her and the lovers that she had almost interrupted as she could. She wasn't really paying attention to her surroundings, so it came as a shock when she crashed into somebody and almost tumbled to the ground.

Strong hands were suddenly under her elbows as a low, familiar chuckle filled her ears. "Are you in a hurry, my princess?"

She looked up into Endymion's laughing blue eyes and mustered a smile. "I was just exploring the rose garden and thought that I would head back to the palace and see if you had returned yet. It must be getting close to lunch time by now."

He nodded. "It is indeed. I only returned just a few minutes ago and came to find you right away." Then he frowned slightly. "I am afraid that you may have spent too much time in the sun, my love. Your face is much rosier than usual."

She waved a hand at him. "It is just a slight touch of heat. That is all. It is unusually warm today." For some reason she was reluctant to tell him about the couple she had seen in the gazebo.

He clucked his tongue. "I forget that you are not used to this sort of weather. Let us get you inside and find you something cool to drink."

He pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead before looping her arm with his and leading her back toward the palace.

_**(End Dream)**_

Serena came awake slowly, blinking her eyes a few times as she tried to focus on her bedside table. She groaned when she saw it was only 2 AM.

Something shifted by her feet before a sleepy voice asked, "Are you okay, Serena?"

"I'm fine, Luna," she mumbled around a yawn. "I just had a silly dream."

She rolled over onto her stomach and buried her face in her pillow as she concentrated on reaching out to the lingering wisps of sleep around her.

Over the years since she had obtained the Silver Crystal, she had gotten used to having occasional dream memories from her past life. Neither she, Darien, or any of the scouts remembered a lot about the Silver Millennium, so it was nice to get these little insights from time to time.

Amy tried to explain them away as just random dreams, but she believed they were real. They were far too detailed to be ordinary dreams. When she dreamed that she was Serenity, she felt like she really was her. She knew what she was thinking inside her head and could feel her long skirts swirling around her legs. And when Endymion touched her, it was as real feeling as if she were with Darien.

This dream had been no different. She had felt Serenity's moodiness and the heat of the sun on her skin. She had even been able to smell the flowers as she had walked through the garden. And she had felt the moon princess's embarrassment at seeing the embracing couple.

'_Man! I was a ninny back then,' _she thought to herself. _'It was probably just a soldier and a maid sneaking away together for a quick make out session. I don't see why I would have let that bother me.'_

She pushed the dream from her mind and soon forgot about it all together as she snuggled deeper into her bed and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

**A/N **That's it for this time. This was really just a bridge chapter more than anything else just to show how Dani is beginning to settle in with everyone. There will be a bit of that in the next chapter as well, along with a bit more developing in the budding relationship between her and Andrew. But we are about to get into the meat of the story. The story of the missing Tsukino baby will soon come to light, and it will be a major blow for poor Serena. Luckily she has her friends and family around to support her. But things will start turning weird when everyone starts having strange dreams and flashes of memories that they can't understand. There is more to this story than just a kidnapped baby and a couple of orphaned kids. Stay tuned for more! Please feel free to drop me those reviews and let me know what you think. Lots of love and hugs!

~Sere~


	5. Playing With the Queen of Hearts

**A/N **What can I say about the wait? Real life sucks sometimes. But it's not all necessarily bad. I just hope that you all enjoy it. HUGE HUGS to all of my reviewers and those who have faved this story so far. You guys are awesome! A lot of you have already guessed where this story is going, which is pretty obvious, but it is a favorite of mine just the same. I hope you guys feel the same.

_**ENJOY!**_

* * *

A Star-Crossed Love

Chapter 5

Playing With the Queen of Hearts

* * *

"Hey! Are you going to join this party, or hide in a corner all night?" Darien complained as he confronted Andrew in the corner of Jill and Rick's large living room.

His blonde friend glanced up with an innocent look in his hazel eyes. "I'm not hiding. I was just taking a minute away from the crowd. That's all."

"Uh huh," Darien muttered, not believing him for a second. "Well your minute has stretched into twenty minutes by now. So what really gives? One second you were right beside me, and the next you were gone."

Andrew shrugged. "I just figured that it was a good time for a break. Your sister had just come in and I knew you would be busy with her for a few minutes."

A speculative look entered Darien's eyes. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you were hiding from Dani."

"I'm not hiding from her!" Andrew protested vehemently, although a guilty flush began to spread across his face. "Actually, I was avoiding my mom and Aunt Jill so they wouldn't catch me with this." He pulled a silver flask out of his pants pocket.

Darien whistled low. "I see what you mean. The last thing we want is a repeat of what happened at the Christmas party when they got on to us for drinking."

Andrew snorted. "I don't see what the big deal is. I'm just adding a little something to the punch to help make this party a bit more enjoyable. It's not like I'm planning on getting wasted or anything. Besides, we're of age."

"Try telling them that," Darien smirked.

Andrew rolled his eyes. "Tell me about it! Do you think we'll ever get to the point in our lives where we can stop acting like sneaky teenagers? I'm sure you have a stash of your own concealed on you somewhere."

"Guilty as charged," Darien mumbled as he quickly flashed his own flask that he had tucked in an inner pocket of his jacket at his friend. "I'd rather be safe than sorry. Ken Tsukino would probably shoot me if he thought I was drinking around Serena."

"Or drive a stake through your heart," Andrew snickered. "Nice costume by the way. I can tell you put a lot of thought into it."

Darien shrugged. "Hey, it works. I didn't want to dress up at all, but Serena insisted. I didn't have the time, or the inclination, to go shopping for a costume, so I took the easy way out. You don't think it's too noticeable, do you?"

Andrew eyed him up and down. All Darien had done was transform into Tuxedo Mask and ditch the hat and the mask. After that he had slicked back his usually unruly black hair and added some fake blood trickles from the corners of his mouth. His fake fangs were currently being held in his hand.

Andrew shook his head. "Nah! Nobody will connect you to your alter ego. Lots of guys wear tuxedos and capes when they dress up like Count Dracula. So you look very convincing."

"That's what Serena said. But it's good to have a second opinion," Darien sighed. Then he grinned. "So what are you supposed to be, a gypsy?"

"Excuse me!" Andrew growled. "For your information, I happen to be a pirate." He tugged an eye patch over his head and settled it into place. "It just gets annoying after wearing this thing for a while. I didn't really want to dress up either, but Aunt Jill said that everybody had to show up in costume. So I raided my closet and threw this together. It was easy enough to do since I already had the white shirt, black pants, and boots. The bandanna was left over from where I helped my dad repaint the arcade a couple of years ago and I picked up the eye patch and the red sash on clearance since the stores were marking down all the Halloween stuff."

"Very chic," Darien drawled. "Maybe you'll get cast in the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie instead of Johnny Depp."

"Shut up!" Andrew snarled. "And keep an eye out for me for a moment. I haven't had the chance to spike this glass of punch yet."

"Well do mine too while you're at it," Darien told him as he turned to slide him his own cup and flask. He hoped his cape was hiding what they were doing.

"Am I interrupting something?" a stern voice suddenly interrupted them. They both turned to find Rick standing behind them.

The detective crossed his arms over his broad chest as he surveyed the two young men. "Well?"

"Umm…" Darien stammered. "We were just…uh…well…"

Rick didn't seem amused. "Adding a bit of something to make the party more lively?"

"Aw…come on, Uncle Rick!" Andrew groaned. "It's just a little drink. Besides, we're legal now. Cut us some slack!"

The man's lips twitched, and then he broke into a grin. "Now who do you think you're trying to sweet talk? I'm the one that gave you boys your first drink when you were both sixteen. I may be a cop, but I'm not going to raise a fuss if you want to have a drink or two at a party. Just don't let the women know."

"No sir, we won't!" Darien and Andrew both agreed at the same time.

Rick cursed as his cell phone began to ring and he fished it out of his pocket to check the number on the screen. "Damn! It's the station." He moved away to take the call.

"Darien! There you are!" Serena squealed as she appeared on the scene, pulling a somewhat reluctant looking Dani behind her. "We've been looking everywhere for you."

"Well, you found me," Darien told her over his shoulder as he covertly tried to slide the flask that Andrew had just handed him back into his pocket without getting caught. "Drew and I were just discussing a school assignment."

Serena lifted her chin imperiously. "You're not fooling me for an instant, Darien Shields. You forget that I have been partying with you guys for years, and I know how you operate. I have a pretty good idea what you two were up to, and I seriously doubt that it had anything to do with school."

She stepped forward and took a sniff of the cup her fiancé was holding in his hand as he turned toward her. A triumphant smile curved up her lips. "Ah ha! I knew it!"

"What? What is it?" Dani asked, curiosity getting the better of her and breaking her silence. Andrew was closer to her than Darien, so she leaned over and took a whiff of his drink.

"Hey!" Andrew protested as he shifted the cup to his other hand and out of her reach.

Dani jerked back in surprise at his outburst. A hurt expression flashed across her face for just a moment before it was replaced with indifference. Then she shrugged. "So you spiked your drinks, big deal. I'm actually more annoyed by the fact that there is booze at this party that isn't being patrolled by the female Furuhata watchdogs and no one has had the courtesy to offer me a drink yet."

Darien sputtered into his cup. "Wha…you…you're only nineteen!"

Her dark blue eyes rolled at him. "Puh-leeze, Dare! Can you honestly say that you never had an occasional drink at that age? My foster parents let me have my first sip of champagne on New Year's Eve when I was twelve. Rick slipped me a Fuzzy Navel when I was here swimming on my Sweet 16. And I did attend a few parties when I was in high school that were a bit wild. So yes, I've been around alcohol before. You don't have to act so shocked."

"She has a point, honey," Serena piped up. "Surely you can remember a couple of situations we found ourselves in a few years ago."

"You mean when I discovered that alcohol and Meatball Heads don't mix?" Darien drawled with a smirk.

"You jerk!" Serena hissed at him. Then she beamed a bright smile. "Oh! I love this song! Come on, Darien! Let's dance!"

Darien chuckled as he tossed back the last of his drink and allowed himself to be pulled by the bubbly blonde to the middle of the room where most of their friends and several other guests of the party were already tearing up the floor. Serena executed a particularly graceful twirl and then wrapped her arms around Darien's neck as his arms slid around her waist. In seconds they were moving in synch to the beat of the music.

"Hmm…" Dani mused. "I guess Darien and I have more genetically in common than I thought we did. All this time I thought he inherited all the brains while I got the physical talent…but I was wrong. My brother can move!"

Andrew snickered next to her. "In case you haven't noticed, my dad and Rick have the rhythm of sticks. If it weren't for me and Darien, my mom and Jill would never get to dance." Then he grumbled, "He's better than I am though."

'_Being a reincarnated prince who was trained to dance from an early age so he would look good at balls didn't hurt his talents any either,' _he tacked on in his mind.

Dani slid a sidelong glance at him. "You dance?"

Andrew took a big gulp of his punch to cover his sudden nervousness. "Not a lot. And I certainly couldn't keep up with someone like you. You actually dance for a living."

She tilted her head thoughtfully as she studied him. "I bet you're pretty good. Besides, I don't restrict myself to only dancing with professionals. I like to dance just for the fun of it too."

He fell silent after her words, fighting against the butterflies that were flitting around in his stomach. He wanted to ask her to dance, just so he would have an excuse to hold her, but he felt too inadequate to do so. Every move she made was smooth and graceful. Even when walking, she appeared to be almost floating. He would look like a bumbling idiot next to her.

So instead of acting he just stood there, watching her secretly out of the corner of his eyes. She continued to look at him for several seconds before the small smile on her lips faded away and she turned slightly away to watch the others dancing.

Finally, he swallowed hard and said, "Your costume is really pretty. Who are you supposed to be?"

She let out a tiny sigh before she turned her head to look at him again. "Can't you tell?"

He checked her out, starting from her feet that were encased in dainty red slippers, and up over the yards of red silk that made up the elaborate, ankle length gown she wore. Sheer, black lace with a pattern of hearts woven into it covered the tight fitting bodice from her waist up to the moderately low cut neckline. The gown was sleeveless, but ruffled, black silk straps hugged her upper arms in an off the shoulder design. Black opera gloves covered her hands and arms up to just past the elbows and a silver bracelet lined with faux, heart shaped rubies dangled from one wrist. The design was repeated in the choker around her slim neck and in the tiara perched on her head. Her normally wavy dark chestnut hair had been curled into fat ringlets and then gathered into a black and silver clip to cascade down her back. She had also done her makeup much darker than usual, and the smoky shadow made her eyes gleam like precious sapphires while the red lipstick practically screamed for her lips to be kissed.

After the thorough assessment, he shook his head. "I admit it, I'm clueless. You kinda match Darien though. Are you supposed to be Lady Dracula or something?"

She smoothed a gloved hand down the full skirt. "No. I'm the Queen of Hearts. The theater did a production of _Alice In Wonderland _last year, and I fell in love with this costume as soon as I saw it. Like I told you before, a friend of mine works in the costume department there, and she let me borrow it."

"Oh," he murmured.

She arched a brow at him. "So you're a pirate, huh?"

He shrugged. "Just call me Captain Jack Sparrow."

A tiny laugh puffed past her lips. "Nah. You seem more like Will Turner to me than Jack. Which is cool. He may have become a pirate in the end, but he was always a gentleman."

"You think I'm a gentleman?" he couldn't help but tease.

Her eyes narrowed for a moment. "I think you're confusing. You annoy the hell out of me sometimes. And then at other times you can be nice and funny. I guess I'm just still trying to figure out exactly who you are. I think deep inside you are strong and kind. You love your family and friends, and I believe you would fight to the death to protect them."

He scratched his head. "Wow! That was kinda deep. You made me sound selfless and noble."

"Don't knock nobility," she scolded. "I think the world could use more noble people in it nowadays. You know, the way it used to be a long time ago."

"You mean like knights in shining armor?" he chuckled. "You do know that there was a reason for all of those armies back then, right?"

She blew out a breath. "There have been wars and fighting for as long as the Earth has existed. And I know that there will always be bad people in the world. I just think that in the past a larger majority of people had a more defined sense of right and wrong and how to treat each other. I hate to even turn on the news because it always seems like some catastrophe is going on somewhere."

He grinned. "I think you should join the debate team at school. You know how to put up an argument."

She smiled impishly. "Well, both of my parents were lawyers. Maybe it's genetic."

"That would explain some of Darien's personality," he grumbled.

Silence fell between them again, but it wasn't as thick with tension as it had been earlier. Andrew was searching for another topic to bring up to get Dani talking again when another young man approached her. He was in his mid-twenties, fairly tall, with brown hair and eyes and a wiry build. Andrew remembered Rick introducing him to the guy earlier and knew that he was an officer from his precinct.

He was sure the cop was a nice guy, but the green eyed monster known as jealousy reared its head as the man walked right up to Dani and asked her if she wanted to dance. Before he could even think, Andrew had set his now empty cup on a nearby table and firmly grasped Dani's slender hand in his.

"Sorry, but the lady's dance has already been spoken for," practically growled at the man. Before another word could be said, he strode toward the throng of dancers, leading Dani behind him.

As they reached the edge of the crowd, Dani dug her heels in and pulled back against him. "Hold on just a minute! I thought you said you didn't dance."

He refused to let go of her hand. "I said I didn't dance much. But I decided I want to right now."

"Well you could have just asked me," she flung back him.

He heaved a sigh. "I was trying to work up the guts to when that idiot beat me to the punch."

She shot a glare at him. "You didn't have to bite the guy's head off."

"I didn't like the way he was looking at you!" he fired back. "He was eying you like you were the catch of the day!"

"I can take care of myself!" she hissed. "I have enough protective, over-bearing men in my life as it is without adding to that number. I appreciate the fact that you feel like you have to look out for your best friend's sister, but I'm not your responsibility."

He spun around sharply. "This doesn't have a damn thing to do with the fact that you are Darien's sister. I just…" his voice tapered off.

Her eyes widened as clarity sank in. "You…you aren't jealous…are you?" she whispered.

"Yes!" he blurted out. Then he shook his head. "No! I don't know. Look, maybe this was a bad idea after all."

His fingers loosened around her hand, but hers tightened around his. "Where do you think you're going? I thought you wanted to dance with me."

His expression was shocked. "What? You mean you still want to…"

"Just shut up and dance with me," she demanded as she stepped up close to him to loop her arms around his neck.

Then music changed then to a slow song, Andrew swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat as he settled his arms around her waist, pulling her close enough that their chests touched.

She smiled up at him as they began to sway to the music. "See, I knew you would be a natural at this."

He snorted. "This isn't really dancing. We're just wandering around in circles."

She pulled lightly on the blonde hair at the nape of his neck. "This is so dancing. There are many different styles of dancing, and they don't all involve fancy footwork. This kind is merely for relaxation and enjoyment. Can you honestly tell me that you're not having fun?"

"No, I'm having fun," he hastily assured her. In fact, he was pretty sure what he was experiencing was a little slice of heaven. The woman of his dreams was in his arms, with her soft curves pressed up against him and her warm scent tickling his nose. She smelled like autumn, like apples and cinnamon. Yep, it didn't get much better than that.

"Good! Then that means we're both enjoying ourselves," she declared. Then she shocked him by laying her head on his shoulder.

His arms tightened around her just a bit. He didn't know why, but a feeling of nostalgia began to fill him. It almost felt like he had been in this position with her before, which was ridiculous. He decided not to dwell on it and just enjoy the moment.

Dani was feeling much the same way as she reveled in the feel of his firm body against hers. She may have only met Andrew a short time before, but she felt as if she had danced with him dozens of times.

"This feels so familiar for some reason," she whispered against his ear.

"I know," he murmured back. "Just go with it. I am."

So she did, and it was as if the rest of the world faded away around them.

* * *

"I'll be darned. Just look at that," Jill said as she nudged her sister-in-law in the ribs.

"What?" Kathy Furuhata whined as she followed the pointing finger. Then her mouth dropped open. "Is that my Drew-baby out there dancing with…"

"With Dani? Yes it is!" Jill crowed triumphantly. "Ilene, are you seeing this?"

Serena's mother bobbed her head. "How could anyone miss it?" Then she growled, "Ken! Sit down! You are not going to go and bother Serena right now."

The brown haired man plunked down in his seat with a pout. "But honey! She's letting Darien hold her much too close. He's touching places that shouldn't be touched!"

Ilene rolled her eyes. "Honestly! At the rate we're going you'll be following them on their honeymoon to make sure there is no _touching _going on."

Ken perked up immediately. "Honeymoon? What honeymoon? I haven't heard anything about any honeymoon. Serena is not allowed to go on trips with boys!"

"You may as well give up the fight, dear," Ilene cautioned him softly. "Our little girl is all grown up and engaged to be married. We can't hold on to her forever." She patted his head as he laid his head on his folded arms on the table and began to sob.

Jill bit back a laugh and tried to sound sympathetic. "There, there, Ken. You still have Sammy for a few more years."

The man's head rose to show watery eyes behind his glasses. "He's already leaving us too."

He waved a hand toward where his son was standing across the room, dressed in the bright orange gi that some of the _Dragonball Z _characters wore with his sandy hair gelled up in spikes. The young teen was also deep in conversation with a pretty brunette girl around the same age.

"Sammy and Mika have grown incredibly close over the past few years," Ilene commented. "Which hasn't necessarily been a bad thing. Since both he and Serena have been busy with their friends and relationships it has cut down on the number of fights I've had to break up between the two of them."

"I know what you mean," Kathy sighed. "It almost broke my heart when Drew announced that he was moving out of the house and into our old apartment above the arcade. But the house has been quieter without him and Lizzie squabbling all the time."

"It might be nice to have an empty nest again," commented Andy, who had been listening quietly up until then. "It will remind me what it was like when we first got married. No kids to worry about. Just us. I can definitely see the fun in that." He waggled his eyebrows at his wife.

Kathy's face turned almost as red as her hair. "You are so bad!"

Rick appeared at their table and knelt down next to Jill. "Honey, I'm sorry, but I have to leave. I just got a call and they need me on a case."

"Oh, pooh! It would be in the middle of our party," Jill pouted, but she was understanding. Over the years they had both learned to deal with the fact that their jobs often called them away at odd times. "Okay, go! Catch the bad guys."

His green eyes glittered eagerly. "That is exactly what I plan to do." He stood, kissed the top of her head, and was gone before the others could blink.

Andy chuckled. "Well it's nice to see that my brother still loves his job."

Jill chewed her lip nervously as stared at the door her husband had disappeared through. Yes, Rick loved his job. He had wanted to become a police officer ever since he was little and he and Andy would play cops and robbers in their back yard. He had worked hard from his first day on the job, surprising his superiors and making detective in a very short amount of time.

But in the past few years it seemed that some of the passion for his job had begun to fade. He laughed about it, claiming that he was getting old and that the younger men in the department could run circles around him. But Jill knew that it bothered him. His biggest fear was the day that he would be forced to stay behind a desk, pushing papers, while the next generation went out to chase down the bad guys.

But tonight she had seen something in his eyes that had been missing for a while. That light, the excitement of the hunt, that she had noticed about him almost immediately the night they'd met almost twenty-one years before, had been burning brightly once again. The man who had just left her hadn't been her tired, middle-aged husband. It was as if he had suddenly been magically transformed into the young, ambitious detective who had stolen her heart all those years ago.

"Hmm…this must be some case they called him on," she mused to herself as she settled back into her chair with a smile.

* * *

"Thank you for the lovely dance," Mina said politely to the young man she had been dancing with as the song came to an end.

Her partner, a medical intern from the hospital, smiled brightly at her. "The pleasure was all mine. Would you care to have another go? They're playing another slow song."

Normally, Mina would have been all over the offer. Unlike her friends, who had all pretty much settled into relationships, she preferred to play the field. And this guy was just the type that she enjoyed spending time with. He was tall and broad shouldered with an athletic build. His fair hair was a few shades lighter than hers and he had beautiful pale blue eyes. He was also funny and easygoing.

But the love goddess had other business that she needed to address right now. Her emotional radar was pinging like crazy, and she needed to talk to someone who would listen to her and not think that she was a complete basket case.

"Maybe in a little while," she answered gently, hoping that he wouldn't take it as a brush off. The guy really was drop dead gorgeous, and she wanted to get to know him better. "I just need to go talk to a couple of my friends for a moment."

To her relief, he grinned. "Okay. I guess I'll go holler at a few friends myself. But I'll see you around. Just promise me that you won't try to sneak out of here without saying goodbye. I'd really like to get your phone number and stay in touch."

"It's a promise," she told him before she turned around, searching for anyone familiar. She sighed gratefully when she spotted a well-known head of auburn curls that stood a bit taller than a lot of the other people in the room.

She almost ran to Lita, who was standing in front of a set of open French doors, trying to catch the breeze blowing in. As she approached, she was happy to see that Raye and Amy were with her as well.

"Hey guys!" she chirped happily.

Raye grinned evilly. "So I see you finally tore yourself away from your conquest of the evening."

Lita snickered. "Yeah. I have to give you double points though. He's a hottie. So who is he?"

Mina waved a hand. "That doesn't matter right now."

"His name is Jason Randall, and he's an intern at the hospital," Amy piped up. "I met him a couple of weeks ago when I went to see my mom at work."

"A doctor, huh?" Lita replied on a low whistle. "You go girl!"

"You better hold onto him. You need somebody to help patch you up after your klutz attacks," Raye barked on a laugh. "Heaven knows it's done Serena a world of good. Of course all Darien has to do is use the Golden Crystal and _WHAM! _Good as new."

"Ha, ha," Mina drawled in a bored tone. "I came over here to tell you guys something important, not to get picked on."

"I'm sorry," Amy apologized right away. "What did you need to tell us?"

Mina was practically bouncing on her feet, but looked around cautiously before she spoke. "Where are Chad, Ken, and Greg?"

"They went to get us some drinks," Lita told her. "And knowing them, they probably got sidetracked by talking."

"Yeah, so spill it Sleeping Beauty!" Raye demanded.

"Just hold your horses, Snow White!" Mina fired back.

During their shopping trip earlier in the week, the five sailor scouts had somehow come up with the idea of dressing up as fairytale princesses. In the end, they decided that it made sense. After all, they were reincarnated princesses. Serena was Rapunzel. Mina was Sleeping Beauty. Raye was Snow White. Lita was Belle. And Amy was Cinderella. It may be a bit childish, but they thought it would be fun.

"I prefer Princess Aurora, thank you very much," Mina sniffed haughtily.

Raye squeezed her temples between her fingers. "Kami save me from exasperating blondes!"

"Anyway…" Lita jumped in, hoping to stop an argument before it started.

"Right!" Mina announced with a quick nod. "Have any of you noticed the love connection going on out on the dance floor."

Raye snorted. "You mean Serena and Darien looking like they've been stuck together with super glue?"

Lita shrugged. "Of course we've noticed."

"I think it's sweet," Amy said in a dreamy voice. "It reminds me a lot of the way they were in the Silver Millennium."

Mina rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah! Serena and Darien are cute together. We've all known this for a long time now. But, my dears, our illustrious princess and prince are not the two that I was referring to. I suggest you try looking about ten feet to their left.

The three sets of violet, green, and blue eyes scan over in the direction she told them, and then widened in shock.

"Well I'll be damned!" Lita murmured.

"When the hell did that happen?" Raye demanded.

Amy shook her head in wonder. "I thought they didn't get along very well."

"I told you girls weeks ago that I had a feeling about those two!" Mina squealed happily. "The goddess of love is rarely ever wrong about these things. I know Dani has been giving Drew a bit of a cold shoulder, but is that really any different than the way you girls told me that Darien treated Serena when they first met?"

"That's true," Amy conceded. "I met Serena only a couple of weeks after Andrew had introduced her to Darien for the first time. She went on and on that day at lunch about this obnoxious guy who called her names and was friends with the guy she thought of as her adopted brother. That afternoon she dragged me to the arcade, and Darien was there. We weren't inside for more than ten seconds before the screaming started."

Raye nodded. "And it got progressively worse from there. By the time I came along they had graduated to throwing things. It's amazing that they didn't kill each other."

"I don't know," Lita mused. "I think I see where Mina is heading with this. Don't you find it odd that during all the fights they had, they never actually hit each other with anything? I know Serena was a major klutz back then, but she was deadly accurate with that tiara of hers. And we all know that Darien could hit a bulls-eye at fifty yards. They've also both admitted to liking each other from almost the beginning and that the fights between them were just a cover up."

Mina snapped her fingers. "Exactly! Drew and Dani may not have been fighting the way Serena and Darien did, but the attraction has been there. Drew hasn't kept it a secret that he would like to pursue something with Dani, but he has that shy side to him that has held him back some. And after their first disastrous meeting, Dani felt the need to hold him at arm's length. But now they seem to have worked their way past that. I don't know exactly what happened tonight, but I felt that _zing_, you know, the one I get when two people click. I looked up, and there they were, shining like a star."

The other three scouts sucked in a collective breath.

"Really?" Lita murmured.

"Shining?" Raye whispered.

Amy barely squeaked, "But doesn't that mean…"

"Yep! I believe they are soul mates," Mina stated proudly.

* * *

"You are so beautiful," Darien breathed against the blonde hair that was tickling his nose.

Serena tilted her head back where it was resting against his chest so she could look up at his face. "I think that's the tenth time you've said that tonight. If you keep it up I'm going to start worrying that you are with me only for my looks."

He grinned down at her. "You know that's not true. But I'm just having a hard time taking my eyes off you tonight."

She blew a piece of hair out of her face. "I don't really look any different than I normally do."

His smile grew. "Your hair is down."

"So?" she shrugged. "You've seen me with my hair down lots of times."

He leaned down to whisper in her ear, "Yes I have. But it's usually when you are in my bed."

She jumped a bit in surprise at his words. "Darien!"

"What?" he drawled innocently.

She gave him an exasperated look as she hissed, "You can't say things like that! Some of the people around us work for my dad at the magazine. I wouldn't put it past him to pay them to spy on us."

"Then let them spy," he told her. "We're both adults and engaged, with your father's blessing I might add. So I don't care if they do go running to him."

"Until he pulls out his shot gun and comes after you," Serena grumbled.

A smirk played on his lips. "Sweetheart, I am the prince of Earth. It will take more than an overprotective father to get me down."

Her arms tightened around his neck as she giggled, "Oh yes, Endymion! You are truly magnificent!"

"Magnificent, huh?" he drawled. "I never tire of your compliments, my Serenity."

She smacked his shoulder playfully. "You know what I mean!" Then her eyes widened as she spotted the couple dancing several feet behind him. "Oh my!"

"What?" he snapped as he felt a wave of shock hit him through their bond. His head immediately began whipping around to locate the possible threat.

He froze when he saw his little sister locked tightly in the arms of his best friend. The two of them were staring deeply into each other's eyes and seemed to be oblivious to the crowd around them, as if they were the only people in the room.

"What the hell?!" he sputtered after a moment.

Serena wasn't quite as shocked after the phone call she'd had with her future sister-in-law earlier in the week. Dani had protested that she was interested in Andrew in a romantic way, but had confessed to finding him attractive. Serena had been able to see through that lie in a heartbeat, even over the phone. And she had been able to tell since the night of Darien's birthday that Andrew was more than just a tiny bit infatuated with the young dancer.

She'd also tried to warn the man she thought of as a brother not to make a move on Dani unless he was serious about having a relationship with her. If there was one thing she had learned about Darien after spending years fighting enemies at his side, it was that he was fiercely protective of people who were special to him. And given that Dani was his younger sister and his only surviving blood relative, that made her pretty damn special to him.

His dark blue eyes were already beginning to glow with that protective light, and Serena grabbed his arms tightly as he attempted to unravel himself from her. "Darien, don't. Leave them alone for now. They're just dancing together."

A growl rumbled in his throat. "They're not simply dancing together. Look at them, Serena! They are completely wrapped up in each other. It isn't right."

Serena held him tighter. "Honey, I already warned you that there were some feelings brewing between them. I guess tonight they finally clicked. After all, they have been dodging around each other for almost three months now."

"They barely know each other," he protested. "And now they are clinging together like they are a long time couple."

She grabbed his chin with one hand and forced his eyes back to hers. "They have gotten to know each other better than you think over the past several weeks. And besides, who are you to talk? Remember when we went out on our first date after you got your memories back after the fight with Alan and Ann? I think you would have dragged me back to your apartment and had your wicked way with me if Rini hadn't fallen out of the sky and landed on us. And up until then I could count the number of civil conversations we'd had on one hand and still had fingers left over."

He let out a snort. "Our situation was vastly different from theirs."

Her head tilted to the side. "How do you figure?"

"A-Are you serious?" he sputtered. "Think about it, Serena. Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask. Serenity and Endymion. We had secret identities and a hidden past drawing us together from the beginning."

"I don't see it that way," she retorted. "I remember it more as boy and girl had a rocky first meeting and didn't get along so well. Over time and through the fights, feelings began to develop between them. All of the other stuff had nothing to do with how our relationship began. It's eerily similar to what I've seen happening between Dani and Drew…just without all the screaming and yelling that we did."

He blew out a frustrated breath. "Maybe you're right."

"I've been known to be, on occasion," she quipped. "All I know is that I was already in love with you before that day at Starlight Tower. And since I had no idea that you were Tuxedo Mask and I didn't even know Endymion had ever existed, I can honestly say that those things had absolutely nothing to do with my feelings for you. Can you say the same about how you feel about me?"

"Of course I can," he murmured as he pressed a kiss against her forehead. "I think you had me from the moment that crumpled up test paper hit me in the head…No, I take that back. I believe you captured my heart when you were only three years old, standing in the middle of my hospital room like a small, golden angel and holding out that rose to me."

She sighed into his chest. "So do you see what I mean? If Dani and Drew want to have a relationship, there's nothing that any of us can say. Besides, don't they deserve to have a chance at happiness the way we have?"

He nodded in agreement. "I know you're right. Dani is my sister, and Drew is like a brother to me. I want to see both of them happy. But at the same time I don't want to see either of them get hurt."

She lifted her head to look up at him. "We do what we can to protect the world, but we can't protect everyone from everything. All relationships have their ups and downs, and I'm sure theirs will be no different. All we can do is be there for them if they need a sympathetic ear or a shoulder to cry on."

He grinned and rubbed a strand of her long, loose hair between his fingers. "When did my little Meatball Head become such a genius?"

She wrinkled her nose in mock irritation at his use of her old nickname. "It's a gift. Now, while my mom has my dad distracted, how about we slip outside for some air and a few minutes alone?"

He immediately began steering her through the dancers and toward a set of French doors. "I like the way you think."

* * *

The two uniformed police officers snapped to attention as the doors of the elevator at Tokyo General Hospital slid open with a soft _ding _and the department's lead detective stepped out into the hall.

"What have we got?" Rick demanded of the one to his left, who was flipping through a notepad filled with scribbles.

"Sir!" the dark haired officer replied. "From what I've been able to put together so far a nurse spotted a man in the hallway tonight after visiting hours were over. When she called out to the man he turned around and she saw that he had a newborn baby with him. This place has pretty high tech security, and they put these bracelets on all the babies that will set off an alarm and lock the floor down if a baby passes by the sensors. All of the doctors and nurses have remotes to deactivate the sensors while transporting the babies from the nursery to the mothers' rooms. Evidently this guy had managed to get into the nursery and knocked out the nurse working in there and stole her remote. After that he snatched a baby girl and was attempting to get away with her. Luckily the nurse saw him and was able to set off the manual alarm and lock down the floor before he could get away."

Rick nodded tersely. "I'm assuming that the nurse is still here."

"Yes sir," the second cop told him. "She's back in the staff break room. In fact, when she found out that you were on the way she said that she knew you and would just wait and tell you everything when you got here so she wouldn't have to repeat herself over and over. The break room is down at…"

"I know where it is," Rick interrupted him as he spun on his heel and began stalking down the hall. When he reached the door at the end he rapped on it twice before he stepped in.

Inside the room was one of his junior detectives and a plump, older woman that he knew very well. "Donna!"

"Rick!" she exclaimed gratefully. "You don't know how glad I am to see you. I almost died in relief when they told me that you were coming. I do feel bad though because I know that you and Jill were giving your big party tonight."

"It's all part of the job," he told her as he gave her a hug. "Jill understands, and she's holding down the fort. But what are you doing here? I thought you were retiring so you could spend more time with the family."

She waved a hand. "I semi-retired and still work a couple of days a week. Can you honestly see me becoming a full-time housewife? Don't get me wrong, I love my grandbabies, and I spend a lot of time spoiling them shamelessly, but now that the hubby has retired as well I knew that we would probably end up murdering each other if we were constantly up underneath each other all the time."

The second detective stood up. "I assume you got this, sir? I took her initial statement, so I guess I'll let you do the follow up. They've already transported the perp down to the station, but he's not talking. He won't even give his name. So they're running his prints through the databases to see if we get a hit."

Rick nodded. "Call and check in to see if they've found out anything yet. And let me know the moment they find out anything on this guy."

"Will do," the detective told him as he slipped from the room.

"I guess it's down to business," Rick sighed as he sank down into a chair across from Donna and pulled out his notepad and pen.

Then older nurse chuckled. "This reminds me of the first night we met, except this time the bad guy didn't get away. Instead of having to console grieving parents, I can rest easy knowing that that baby girl is down the hall in her momma and daddy's arms."

"That is a good feeling," Rick agreed with a grin. "Now tell me everything you can remember. What set you off about the guy?"

Her brow wrinkled in thought. "I'm not entirely sure. I had seen him earlier, before visiting hours were over, walking down the hall. I knew he wasn't a parent, but I didn't think much about it since he could have been a relative or a friend of a patient. I just remember thinking that something seemed familiar about him, like I'd seen him before."

He wrote down a few things. "He seemed familiar? Do you think you had seen him here before, or someplace else? Was there anything distinguishing about him that would make him stand out in a crowd?"

She shook her head. "I don't know where I've seen him, or if I even have. There is nothing remarkable about the guy. He's average height, about your age, maybe a few years older. He has brown hair and was dressed in jeans, a button down shirt, and a jacket. He was completely normal looking. But I got this hinky feeling and I couldn't shake it."

"Gut instincts are usually a safe bet," he told her. "So what happened next?"

She continued. "Well, I kinda forgot about the guy during the evening rush of getting the babies all weighed and tucked in for the night. Visiting hours ended and all was quiet. We had a couple of patients who were delivered by caesarian section late this evening, so their babies were staying in the nursery. I was on my way to check in with Missy, the nurse on duty there, when I saw that guy in the hall."

He interrupted her. "Missy is the nurse who was knocked unconscious by the perp?"

She nodded. "They took her down to the ER to get checked. Luckily she just has a bump on the head. Anyway, I saw the guy, and I saw him pointing one of our security remotes up at one of the sensors in the ceiling. I called out to him and asked what he was doing. He turned around, and I saw he had a pink bundle in his arm. I realized what was happening, and luckily there was an emergency pull for the alarm right by me. So I set it off."

Her hands shook as she picked up a cup of coffee. "After that, things got a little crazy. He laid the baby down on the floor, and then he started yelling at me, telling me to turn off the alarm so he could leave. Then he started heading toward me. I panicked then because I didn't know if he had a gun or a knife on him. Thank goodness two security officers just happened to be on this floor and came running when the alarm went off. They tackled him and handcuffed him before anything could happen. After that I picked up the baby and rushed her back into the nursery."

"It was a brave thing to do," Rick told her as he reached over and patted her gently on the shoulder. "And thanks to the advances in technology you had a way to stop what happened almost twenty-one years ago from happening again."

"It is a good feeling, even if I felt like I was going to pee my pants at the time," she giggled shakily. But the sound abruptly broke off and her expression turned thoughtful.

"What is it?" Did you think of something else?" he asked her.

"I'm not sure…maybe," she murmured as she thought hard. Then her eyes widened. "He called me by my name."

Rick was stumped. "He what?"

"He called me by my name," she repeated. "I guess it's not that big of a deal since I wear a nametag. But he said my name like he knew me. I remember he said, _'Damn it, Donna! What did you have to go and do that for?'_, with no hesitation."

Rick sat back in his seat, pondering this new information. This was definitely an unexpected twist.

Just then there was a knock on the door and the junior detective came back in. "Good news, sir. We got a positive ID on our perp. He had a few misdemeanor charges from back when he was young, so his prints were in the system. His name is Jasper Winston, age forty-eight. His address is listed as an apartment over in Juban, and as far as we can tell he's unemployed at the time."

Donna let out a gasp. "Did you say Jasper Winston?"

Rick raised a brow. "Do you know him?"

She nodded. "Not personally, but I knew I recognized him. He was a custodian here at one time and thought he was quite the ladies man. He spent more time flirting with the nurses than he did doing his job. You can ask Jill about him. I bet she remembers him because he pestered her quite a bit. Gosh that had to be twenty or more years ago now."

Rick felt his heart begin to thump loudly in his chest. "Do you remember if he was working here at the time of the Tsukino baby kidnapping?"

Donna met his eyes with a grim look. "Yes, he was."

* * *

"It was nice of you to give me a ride home," Dani told Andrew as they approached her apartment door. "Rick picked me up and was supposed to bring me back, but you know how his job is."

He chuckled. "Yeah, I do. But even if he hadn't been called out, I still would have offered you the ride. I had a really great time tonight."

She giggled. "Me too. And for someone who claimed to not dance much, you sure seemed to enjoy it once you got out there. You were cutting some serious moves on the fast songs."

"It's because I had such a talented partner," he grinned. "When I'm dancing with you I don't completely feel like myself. It's like another person wakes up inside of me and all I want to do is keep you in my arms."

"I know what you mean," she murmured as a blush heated her face. The whole night seemed to have passed by in a whirl to her. She knew that she had spent time socializing with Darien, Serena, and all of her other friends, but those memories were hazy and disjointed when compared to the time she'd spent in Andrew's arms.

As she fumbled to get her keys from her purse, he asked, "So what are you up to tomorrow?"

She glanced at him over her shoulder. "Absolutely nothing. It's Sunday, and for the first time in a long time, I have nothing to do. No classes, no teaching, no practice, nada. I'll probably spend the day catching up on laundry while watching movies."

Andrew blurted out before he could lose his nerve, "Would you like to go out with me?"

She turned around so that she could fully face him. "Did you just ask me to go on a date?"

A flush began creeping up his neck. "Uh, yeah. I guess I did."

Butterflies erupted in her stomach, but she reminded him, "Don't you have work tomorrow?"

"Just the early shift," he answered. "I only have to stay until the lunch rush is over. After that, I'm free."

"O-Okay," she stammered. "I'll go out with you tomorrow."

His face lit up like a kid at Christmas. "You will?"

Her expression turned slightly haughty. "Don't get too excited. I still haven't forgotten what a jerk you were to me the day we met. But I have to say that you have come a long way in redeeming yourself to me. I like spending time with you, so I'm willing to take the chance and go out on a date with you."

"Thank god!" he sighed. "You are one tough nut to crack, Danielle Shields, maybe even tougher than that bonehead brother of yours. I've been trying to wear you down for almost three months."

"Well consider me worn down," she said softly. Then she sucked in a breath as he stepped in closer, pinning her between himself and her door.

Andrew felt that feeling again, like another person had come alive inside of him. He stared down into her deep ocean eyes before he whispered, "I've wanted to do this all night."

Dani watched him as if in a trance as he cupped one hand behind her head and settled the other one at her waist. Then he pulled her slightly up as he bent his head down and kissed her lips gently.

It was a soft, tentative kiss. She knew he was keeping it light in case she wanted to pull back. But the moment his lips touched hers she knew that pulling away was the last thing she wanted to do. Her keys and purse tumbled to the floor as she flung her arms around his neck and pressed her mouth tighter to his.

Andrew let out a small moan at the increased pressure, and decided to be a bit more daring. He parted his lips and let his tongue sweep out to lap lightly at her lips. He heard her whimper softly, and then her lips opened and welcomed him inside where her tongue danced with his.

The kiss continued for a couple of minutes, growing in intensity, until they both became lightheaded and regretfully parted. Andrew buried his face in her neck, inhaling her spicy scent, and had to force himself to not place his lips against her creamy skin. He knew that if he did, his already raging hormones would take over and he would end up doing something that would probably get him slapped. Earlier Dani had told him that she thought he was noble, and he didn't want to do anything that would destroy her opinion of him.

So he did the noble thing and let her go as he stepped back, her arms falling away as he did. He bent down and picked up her purse and keys from the floor before straightening up to look at her. And damn if she wasn't the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen! Her cheeks were flushed pink and her eyes were sparkling with what he hoped was happiness. She had a hand pressed to her chest, and it made him wonder if her heart was pounding as fast as his was.

He handed her her things with a smile. "Good night, my Queen of Hearts. I hope you have sweet dreams."

She smiled back. "Good night, my dashing pirate. I will see you tomorrow." She took her things and turned to unlock and open her door.

"Until tomorrow, my lady," he said with a gallant bow as she went inside and closed the door.

He stood there for a moment, fighting back the whoop of glee that was bubbling inside of him, before turning away to head for the elevator. He began whistling as he walked down the hall, and was still whistling happily when he stepped off the elevator a few minutes later. That whistle died, however, when he stepped out onto the sidewalk and saw the dark haired man leaning against his black Mustang.

"I wanted to have a talk with you," Darien said grimly.

* * *

There was a flash of dark light in an empty apartment as a woman appeared in the middle of the living room. Her hair, darker than the blackest black, reached the floor and writhed around her like snakes. She was tall, but painfully thin, as was shown by the tight fitting, low cut black dress she wore that went down to her ankles. A long slit traveled up the side all the way to her hip.

She looked around for a moment before fixing the ceiling with a murderous glare. She snarled at the thought of the woman she knew was sleeping in the apartment above her.

"It's time to finish what we started, you little bitch!" she hissed. "You took him from me once before. I will not allow you to have him again."

She stalked into the kitchen, where she found a stack of newspapers that had been left behind by the previous tenant when they had packed. She scattered the papers over the top of the stove, and then turned on all four eyes. And then, she waited.

She didn't have to wait long before the newspapers burst into flame. She waved a hand toward the blaze and a shimmer of magic flew from her fingertips, feeding the flames and making them jump higher. In minutes, half the kitchen was engulfed.

The woman smiled wickedly. "There, that should do the trick."

She disappeared from the apartment, only to appear in the hallway one floor up. She reached for a particular doorknob and clenched it in her bony fingers.

"But just in case…" she murmured a chant under her breath, and the knob glowed for a moment. "That should make sure she can't get out. Now she can burn in the flames of the hell that she made my life."

* * *

_She laughed as she and her partner twirled around the floor. "For someone who professes to hate dancing so much, you do dance divinely."_

_His blue-green hazel eyes glittered humorously at her. "One of the perks of all the lessons my mother made me take, I suppose. She always says that a gentleman should know how to dance properly. Of course, having the right partner makes all the difference."_

_She sniffed daintily. "So now I guess you are trying to say that I am the right partner for you. That sounds like a load of flattery to me."_

"_But it is sincere flattery," he returned with a smile. "And let me take the opportunity to tell you how exquisitely beautiful you are this evening."_

_She glanced down at her dark blue gown with its emerald green lace overlay over the bodice and around the hem of the skirt. "What, this old thing? I just picked out the first thing in my closet that my hand landed on. I did not feel an overwhelming need to try and make any special attempts to dress up."_

_He leaned in close and whispered next to her ear, "Then why did I overhear you telling my mother that you had it specially made for tonight?"_

_She blushed fiercely and glared at him, but remained quiet._

_He chuckled. "Admit it. You are happy to see me."_

_A heavy mist began to creep in as they continued to dance, growing thicker and thicker as the moments passed. Soon, she could no longer see that face of her dancing companion…she also felt like she couldn't breathe._

Dani jerked awake in her bed, gasping for breath, and immediately began choking. Her eyes stung and watered as she looked around her tiny bedroom to find that the smoke-like mist from her dream existed in the waking world, and it was pure smoke.

A loud beeping finally invaded her brain, and she realized that it was the smoke alarms wailing wildly. She squinted through the smoke at the illuminated numbers on her alarm clock and saw that she had hadn't even been asleep for half an hour yet. After coming in from saying goodnight to Andrew, she had changed from her costume and gone directly into the shower, where she had spent the whole time she was bathing daydreaming about the handsome blonde that she had spent such a magical night with. She had fallen into bed immediately afterward and had fallen asleep within minutes under the glow of the full moon shining in her window.

There was no time to dwell on that now. Her foster father was a fireman, and the one thing that had been drilled into her mind from the time she had gone to live with her foster family was what to do in case of a fire.

She rolled off her bed to land on her hands and knees on the floor and quickly crawled out of the bedroom. The smoke was even thicker in her short hallway, but she stopped at the bathroom long enough to reach up and grab a hand towel off the rail and wet it quickly in the sink. She held the wet fabric over her nose and mouth to help her breathe as she continued crawling with only one hand into the living room.

She took a moment to get her bearings and plotted a course to the door that would be sure to take her around the furniture, and then she was off, scooting across the floor like a frightened mouse. She was almost to the door when a flicker of orange caught her eye and she glanced into the kitchen. Her eyes widened painfully as she saw the flames that were beginning to come up through the floor under her stove.

Oh yeah, it was time to get the hell out of there. She made it to the door in seconds and used the doorknob to pull herself up so she could undo the locks and the chain. Then she turned the knob and yanked on the door…but nothing happened.

* * *

**A/N **More hints were thrown out in this chapter, but I'm sure that most of you have pieced together who's who by now. More moments are coming up between our favorite royal couple. I was looking through some of what I have prewritten for this story, and I was wondering if I should up the rating to M or edit it to keep it in the T category. What do you guys think? Feel free to leave those comments to tell me what you think of the story so far. Lots of love and hugs!

~Sere~


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